Silk and Machinations
by Clementive
Summary: [AU] He was a cold-hearted married shogun. She was the pawn they used to destroy him and his clan. When their worlds collided, all that remains are dark plots, misleading lies, a war threat and their growing love. NejiTen and others.
1. Silk Blood

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.  
Minor pairings: SasuSaku, ShikaIno, GaaHina (mentioned), TsunaJirai (mentioned) and perhaps others.  
I hope you enjoy!**

Silk Blood  
_by Clementive_

The wife bit her pillow swallowing her screams. _No, no, no_! She tried to hold it back, the pain, her blood. She held her knees tight together. Vaguely, she heard her servants' concern. After two years, her belly remained infertile. _No!_

She shrieked and pestered. She pushed back her servants. Her lips were white with rage, her nails bloodied and her hands raw.

Her moon blood gathered on her tights and her servants tried once more to quiet her hysteria. She had tried every potion; she had prayed and given money to the temples. Her head felt blank as her servants managed to get her to lie down. Her body felt limb and a cacophony rang to her ears. Twice, she awoke screaming and cringing in the night. Her body ached. Sweat shined like cold pearls on her skin. The servants hovered the princess. She screamed louder; she thought the shadows were demons; their claws were digging in her skin. They were whispering, plotting against her in white ceremonial robs. They wanted to take her son. She fought back the soothing hands. They too were demons. She slept through four days holding her sides, thinking she was protecting her son.

Her blood and her tears dried, as the days passed. She felt her swollen belly and the fearful eyes of her servants.

The wife was a childless princess and her husband bought a concubine.

-X-

Neji Hyuuga stared at the grey sky and the high mountains. His long hair was held back from his icy face in a low ponytail. He stood on the veranda enjoying the silence, his pearl eyes shining in the glooming day. His wife had finally ceased her melodramatic act. She had asked him to see her. When he didn't answer any of her servants, she had pleaded his guards to let her enter his chambers. Coldly, he had ignored her pleas. Finally, he had sent a servant to inform her about the concubine.

Draped in fur, the symbol of his clan burned through his skin. They played him, again and again. The silk irritated his skin. The smoothness felt bitter. Neji inherited his uncle's shogunate at 18. He fought on two campaigns both of which he won. A servant opened the sliding doors of the veranda.

"Hyuuga-sama, they are waiting for you." The voice was meek. Sometimes he wondered how it was that only servant girls thought he was the master in the compound.

Unlike, the elders.

They awaited him in the next room. Their features would all show feinted respect. He was second-branch bred. They tasted disdain when they bowed to him. His forehead was still marked and they lured him in a childless marriage. They pushed him over the edge. Neji had sent Hinata Hyuuga away to show them he has the lord in this compound. He smirked remembering their displeasure when the true heiress left. Now, they were smirking whenever her name came up. She had two sons and he had none.

"Tell them that I am bathing." He said flatly.

The shogun smirked barely looking at the blush of the servant. She shut the door and he sighed. They would try to make him reconsider the concubine. Yet, he didn't have a choice. He needed a son.

Out of the compound, he had a minor household where the concubine could stay. His fingers wrapped around his katana pommel, he turned on his heels and walked towards the council chamber. The harshness of the cold cleared his mind. His body was ready for the battle ahead.

He snapped the sliding doors opened, glaring down at them.

"My apologies, my lords. I was bathing with my concubine." He saw their back stiffed under their kimono.

They were still bowing.

-X-

Shizune kneeled next to the sliding doors. Soft rain fell as the last of the light were extinguished. This night only a few regulars marched through the gates. The secluded emplacement of the pleasure house was meant to guarantee discretion for powerful figures. The estate drew water from the lake and beauty from the landscape. At her first husband death, Tsunade had established her pleasure house. Some of the girls came on their own while the others were sold by their family. Like a mother, she taught her girls the art of love. Most of them became concubine to powerful lords or geisha. Years later she met her new husband, an erotic writer.

Suddenly, Shizune heard a horse pants from afar. She frowned as she slowly rose to her feet. The rider stopped in the middle of the garden before the stoned path to the estate. She slipped her sandals on and ran towards him. Without a word, he gave her a folded paper. With no further explanation, he turned his horse and rode away. Her eyes felt on the seal and suddenly she ran.

"Tsunade-sama!"

Her sandals were soon disregarded on the veranda. Her feet left wet smear on the floor as she ran towards her mistress' room. She heard a silent curse and she erupted in her room, panting heavily.

Piles of documents rested near the knees of a tall woman. Pale brown eyes stared at her blankly. The blond haired woman sighed. Her hand paused and put the sake cup back on the mahogany table.

"I truly hope this is important…" Tsunade growled. She hated the feel of the ink on her fingers. Her husband was asleep in an adjacent room while she was counting the gains of the night's work.

"A letter has arrived from the Hyuuga compound."

She blinked. Then, a smile creased her lips. The rumors had been true, then. The Hyuuga lord was tired of his wife. She snatched the letter out of her servant's hands. She read it eagerly near the oil lamp.

"Is the messenger still here, Shizune?"

"No, he left once he had given it to me."

"I see." She read the letter again. "Hyuuga-hime is still not pregnant and Hyuuga-sama is asking for a concubine. Of course, Hyuuga-hime is pleading me to send him the ugliest woman I have here."

Tsunade's hands shook. Displeasure crept on her features and she threw the letter on her desk. The princess surely knew nothing of the art of love.

"That cow should know that I have no ugly woman here." She stared at Shizune frowning. "Besides, I wouldn't want to displease that husband of hers."

She tapped her chin with a polished red nail. There was a way for her to take advantage of the situation. All their clients were rich but the Hyuuga clan was rich and powerful. Neji Hyuuga became the shogun when his uncle died. His cousin was married in the Shukaku clan in the south. She smiled slowly. This would create an interesting situation. Hinata Hyuuga had already given two sons to the clan. If her cousin did not conceive, her husband would reclaim the shogunate in her name.

On the battle field, Neji Hyuuga was still unchallenged. He had claimed for the emperor many lands held by rebel. Yet, he was now defeated by his own wife.

"Who should I fetch, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked meekly breaking through the trail of her thoughts.

Suddenly, she made her decision. Smirking, her guts twisted in excitement.

"Tenten. Fetch her for me, please."

She had nearly forgotten how it felt to gamble. It was never about money, it was about the game and the gain.


	2. Drapes of Dawn

**Summary: In a world of honor, conspiracies are whispered in dark chambers. He is a married shogun without allies and she is a dancer without a name. Together, they will face dark plots, cold murders, misleading lies and a growing love. NejiTen**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.  
I thank all of you who had reviewed or added my story to your favorite/alert list. This chapter is longer than the previous one as promised. I hope you enjoy!**

Drapes of Dawn  
_by Clementive_

Dawn colored the sky in shades of pink. The sliding doors were ajar, the burned oil casting shadows on their grave faces. Shizune was kneeling next to the doors while Tenten and her mistress faced one another one. Tenten's usual buns were unbound, her silk brown hair cascading on her back. She still wore the plain black kimono she slept with. Her mistress remained silent waiting for her reaction while she tightly pressed her hands against her knees. Her eyes remained cheerful with empty happiness. Her smile still hung upon her lips. It was just a front.

"You know, Tenten,_ this is_," she pointed at her face, her smile, "why I chose you."

Tenten's shoulders jolted as she inclined her head. Tsunade laughed lightly.

"I would be afraid to play cards against you. You do not have a doll face like Ino but you control your face better than any of us. A shame you weren't born in court, really."

A slight smirk crept on Tsunade's lips. The face before her didn't flinch at the insult. Instead, she bowed her head as if she were grateful. '_Fool_, she thought, _don't you understand that I can crush you?'_

"I thank you, Tsunade-sama," the younger woman curtsied.

She felt cold inside, shallow in her own act. She wanted revenge, not to play in the fields of pleasure with a shogun. She felt repulsion at the mere thought. '_Hyuuga should be the last men to ever touch me_.' Besides, the Hyuuga elders will demand her head were she to ever conceive a child with the shogun. The land was already unstable with confused orders. Some soldiers have taken the habit of acting on their own accord. The shogun's words nearly never reached them or if they did, it was after his uncles had voiced their own opinions. Some had called upon the emperor so the shogunate could change hands but Hyuuga Neji always won on the battlefield.

The emperor chose to only consider his military acts. _For now_. The unity of Japan was of greater importance than the instability of a small shogunate in the North. _For now_. Either way, it was the game of silk and masquerade.

The sick feeling of bile filled her mouth and nostrils. The elders would call her concubine before her and play her like a mere pawn behind her back.

Slowly, she licked her lips. Or she could act like a pawn before them and play them behind their back. They were not the only ones trying to play her though. Her hazel graze fell on Tsunade's delicate face.

"Surely, Tsunade-sama would accept my humblest gifts for offering me such a position?"

A flick of greed enlightened Tsunade's pale pupils. She moved closer to Tenten in a fuss of silky material. She captured her chin between her thumb and index. They stared at one another in controlled breath. It was about control and power, they both knew it.

"Don't play dumb, _Tiantian_. I know what you want, what you have always wanted. Revenge on Japanese soldiers, yes?"

Tenten forced herself to remain still. Her smile stilled on her rosy lips. A perfect mask. She knew Tsunade didn't know anything about any _soldiers_. She was gambling, playing against her. She smirked inwardly, '_it seems you have forgotten that you didn't want to play against me, Tsunade-sama._' Tsunade let out a sigh of frustration letting go of her chin. She couldn't get a reaction out of her. Her mind turned instead to pragmatic thoughts. Her education had cost her; she was a dancer. They rarely ask to have cunning knowledge of her. They wanted to see her move. She had never been a major investment except powerful figures enjoyed her dance.

"Let me be frank, Tiantian, you are neither the most beautiful nor the most talented of the girls here. That emotional control is all you have and I intend to use your power of deception to _my_ advantage."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

Blank eyes, empty words. They both knew it; the advantage was hers.

"Once you have paid back your debts to me, you will be free to do as you please. For now, though, you will obey. The shogun _must_ eat in the palm of your hand and everything you gain will come through this door until you have repaid me. Did I make myself by a way or another unclear?"

"No, Tsunade-sama."

"Good girl," she said relieved. "Shizune will accompany you to the Hyuuga compound in the early afternoon. You will use the palanquin and you will let no one see you. I want the small folks to talk and fantasize about you. Now, leave."

Tenten bowed. Her forehead touched the floor and she moved backwards until she reached the sliding doors. Shizune closed the doors behind as Tenten's feet slipped in her sandals. Then, Shizune followed her to her room. The servant closed the doors behind her. Tenten could see her shadow through the thin paper screens. Shizune was guarding her door.

She closed her eyes in the fading darkness. The light flickered, waving through long shadows. '_Japanese soldiers_,' Tsunade's voice rang low in her ears.

She had arrived at ten in the estate. Her mother had been a refugee from China. When she was sold, she barely understood Japanese and Tsunade almost sent her away to a low-cast brothel in the red square of the capital. Then, she saw her dance. Tsunade decided to pay for a dance instructor. Customers paid and Tsunade didn't regret her change of heart. Men wanted to see her movements slivered the passing time, the abandon of her neck, of her shoulders.

She was letting her go, now. Dancing had never been enough. Men were watching her move in a mesmerized state while they would lust over the other girls. She laughed bitterly, imagining Hyuuga-sama reaction when he would look at her for the first time. Surely, he would return to his matrimonial bed. She opened her eyes and stared back at her face. She did not have high cheek bone like the highborn ladies. She had plain hazel eyes and a small nose. Her lips were surely her best features; full, round and not too thin. Her complexion was not ivory. She had a haze skin and a few scars on her back. Her hair was as long as any highborn though. When she bowed, the movement revealed her thin nape of her neck.

She smiled slowly. She also had the perfect mask. Her heart was black with revenge. In her memory, the only _Japanese soldiers_ were from the Hyuuga clan.

Her hidden kunai felt cold against her left thigh.

-X-

"This is troublesome."

Lazily, Shikamaru Nara gazed down at the bloodied gouge. The alley was nearly a league from the shogun compound. Next to him, the corpse's hand was still wrapped on his half drawn katana. The silver blade reflected the emerging sun. The captain's dark gaze trailed on the stiffed cold face. The pearl eyes stared blankly back at him. He had a bad feeling about this dead. The man resembled a disarticulated child dropped from the sky. Slowly, Shikamaru stared up at the building's pointy roof. It was still damp from the rain. He ran a hand through his bound bristly hair.

"This is very troublesome."

He heard the dog before he saw it and he closed his eyes. The lieutenant hardly seemed to ever be on time. The captain turned his head towards the noise and he sighed deeply. Kiba Inuzuka emerged at the entrance of the alley. He froze when he saw the Hyuuga symbol on the robes of the victim.

"A Hyuuga?!"

'_Loud-mouthed, as always. Troublesome.'_ Sighing again, he nodded curtly. There were days when he wondered why the Hyuuga had chosen him to take care of the law and order in the capital. He would rather sleep through the day. If he was free of his charge, he could truly be lazy. He rubbed his eyes, dispelling the last remains of sleep on his hale face.

"Inuzuka," he growled lowly, "your loud voice is troubling my thoughts."

He turned towards the roof of the house on the other side of the alley. The roof was also damp. There was no sign of a sandal having smeared the wetness. He frowned; the corpse didn't fall from the sky.

Kiba kneeled down next to the corpse. The lieutenant took in the mortified face. Gently, he uncovered the bandage around the forehead with pointy hands. The green searing mark had turned blue. The cadaver had died late during the night and he was not from the main branch. He murmured an order to Akamaru through sharp teeth and his dog left his side. It sniffed the surrounding area. He stood up following the Nara's black gaze.

"Do you think he jumped?" He blurted out, breaking the silence.

The Nara sighed slowly, reaching for his tobacco pouch. He lit his silver pipe and drew the smoke in his lungs. He closed his eyes, enjoying the taste of ashen and dried leaves.

"If the Hyuuga clan started committing suicide by jumping off buildings, things will quickly get very troublesome. No, his wound gush is too deep. Someone killed him."

Kiba nodded. His dog yelped and the two men exchanged a look. Akamaru trotted towards them a bloodied rag in his mouth. It let it go at his master's feet. The smoke rose from his mouth in a curled design. Shikamaru bent down and revealed the silver blade from the rag piece of cloth. He cursed under his breath.

"This is extremely troublesome. Kiba, we need to find Neji, now."

The katana glowed under the sun rays. The Hyuuga symbol was neatly engraved on the pommel. The blade was oddly familiar under the dried blood.

"Is this…?"

His voice felt flatly on the narrow alley. His breath loudly left his lungs. His lips had turned white.

"Yeah," Shikamaru answered plainly. "This is Neji's katana."

Kiba's eyes remained on the blue contorted face of the Hyuuga. Shikamara eye's flicked towards the mansion near the lake. He smelled the tall pines, the roses' fragrance from the garden. _Ino…_

"Before we leave, I need to go somewhere troublesome."

-X-

"I heard you were leaving." The loud voice made her pause and then smile.

The light blond haired woman entered the room. She didn't wait for a reply. Instead, she kneeled down next to the half full chest. Curiosity had already begun to eat her insides. Ino Yamanaka could weigh the questions on her tongue. She opened her mouth and then shut it tight. She paused considering the presence of Shizune at the doors and Tenten's silent plea.

"Tsunade-sama had made me this honor, yes."

Her hand wandered in the chest distractedly. She felt the texture of the folded kimono. Silk. Surprise and jealously twisted through her. She mused silently who had given such fine clothing to her friend. She felt Tenten's gaze on her.

"Shizune, can you bring us some tea, please? And pastries."

She giggled but it sounded forced to Tenten. A smile played on her lips as she saw Shizune frowned.

"Well, Shizune? Are you not a servant anymore?" Ino's voice snapped through the air. A light blush on her cheeks, Shizune slightly bowed. The doors were now tight shut. The two young women waited counting her retreating steps.

"What is this, Tenten? You are being watched, now?"

She tried to say it lightly but she cringed at the loudness of her own voice. She could feel the tension in her friend's shoulders. Traces of a sleepless night hung on her traits. Tenten let go of the kimono she was holding and drew nearer to the loud blond.

"Ino, listen to me. You need to be more careful."

'_So, no one told you yet?' _She battered her lashes. Her mouth was close to her ear. Tenten smelled musk and cold tobacco.

"Me?" She asked in a whisper. "I think you are the one who should be more careful. Shika told me that a Hyuuga was found dead at dawn."

An icy jolt ran through her spine. Tenten looked through Ino's blue eyes. She saw no fear only malice. The younger woman licked her lips, satisfied of her effect.

"I don't know what Tsunade's intentions about the Hyuuga clan are but she asked not to tell you this."

Stunned, Tenten looked down at the kimono she was holding. She opened her mouth but they heard Shizune's nearing steps. They feigned their laughter, as they resumed the delicate folding of Tenten's kimonos. The servant appeared with pinched lips. Her stare went from one woman to the other. She set the plate of pastries and the cups of tea in between then on the mat. Ino babbled on her favorite client and Tenten smiled and nodded through her stories. Inwardly, her mind raced through the meaning of the murder.

"You should tell me your secret, Ten. You truly have beautiful garments."

Ino eyed the hairpin made out of bronze with apparent desire. She felt a dull ache in her chest. A concubine was not to be in the presence of any other man. She was to never dance again before an audience. Sometimes, when she saw men tumbling out of the other girl's room, she would close her eyes and think about how their eyes felt when she performed. Time would stop; they would forget to eat or drink. They would look at her. Only at her.

A concubine was a vessel, a mother, a lover with the denied possibility to love.

She turned her back to her friend and put the last of her things in the wooden chest. The room felt bare, hallow in the icy gleam of the sun. She wondered how long it would remain unoccupied.

"I have forgotten who gave it to me," she lied.

She closed the chest with a lock and sent Shizune to ask the guards to carry her things to the palanquin. Ino looked at her straightening her back. A dull ache persisted in her chest.

"I have never thought I would have children, Ino."

Her pale blue eyes widen as she grabbed Tenten's hand in hers.

"Come and visit, Ino." She said softly.

When Shizune returned, they were still holding hands. The men took the chest and the chant of the grasshoppers filled the room.

"Tenten-sama, it is time."

-X-

Neji Hyuuga emotionlessly stared down at the dirty katana before him. None of his officers dared to break the silence. They could feel his cold rage gushing out of his stature.

"Well, Nara, this is a fine imitation."

In a jerk of the wrist, he drew his katana out. It fell loudly on his desk. Shikamaru sighed lazily, scratching his scalp. Uneasy, Kiba gulped silently.

"Give me a name, Nara. _Now._" Coldness crept onto his voice and it rang low in the room.

"This is troublesome as always. I think the decision about the concubine was rushed, _Hyuuga-sama_."

Neji glared at him. '_A woman could never bring so many problems'_, he thought. He still hadn't met her and everyone kept repeating her title. A concubine. She didn't have a name yet. He passed inwardly through the last council's meeting. It had ended late and he had worked through the night. A military report still needed his signature on his desk. There was also a letter from his cousin. She was pregnant. Again.

His head throbbed from lack of sleep. Somehow, he feared the elders may try to murder him at a vulnerable state. However, he never thought they would murder _for_ him. The frame was clumsy though. A shogun rarely left his compound during peaceful times and let alone to wander far in the capital. His only worry was the katana on his desk. He averted his eyes from the twin blades. They were making him pay for his arrogance.

The Nara lit his pipe, holding in the smoke. Next to him, Kiba wrinkled his nose. His senses were always overwhelmed with the rusty scent of tobacco.

"You know, Neji-san. You may want to ask yourself: why was that youngster in an underprivileged area of the capital."

The shogun nodded briefly, urging him on. He didn't have time for the Nara's strategic games. He wanted names, and curt answers.

"You go in a secluded area to plot, Hyuuga," he said simply.

"Or when you want to go to Tsunade-sama's pleasure house," Kiba blurted oblivious to their reactions. Blankly, they stared at him. "What? The estate is five minutes from where we found the body."

Neji pinched the bridge of his nose._ 'That woman again_,' he thought bitterly. He wondered if they thought of framing his concubine, if it was the plan all along. _Her_, not him. She knew nothing of the silk game or political conspiracies. His mind swam in infinite possibilities and he was suddenly tired of all the plots, of his need for heir. They all wanted their share of the power. They wanted a fragmented shogunate and a piece each to hold on to.

"Find out, Nara, if that estate is part or not of the plot. As for you, Inuzuka, go to the estate and guard the concubine with your life. Do you understand me? If she dies, don't bother to come back here alive."

The lieutenant paled slightly. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the Nara's darkened expression as he bowed. Neji looked pointedly at him confirming his dismissal. He left the room in a steady pace to join his dog on the veranda. Nara remained behind staring back at the shogun. He still felt his lover's kiss on his mouth.

"Just so you know, Hyuuga," he said slowly, "if your concubine is a loud troublesome blond woman… Heir or not, it will get troublesome for you if you touch her."

"I am certain my wife made sure I get an ugly face, Nara," he replied icily, "I thank you for your _concern_ though."

His tobacco pouch disappeared in his robes and he bowed stiffly. When the sliding doors closed on his darkened face, repulsion claimed the curl of his mouth. His pearl eyes trailed on the sullied sword on his desk.

Red. The bitter color of honor and blood.

On an impulse, Neji threw his katana across the room. The fake silver blade shattered on the beam. Faintly, the slivers shimmered on the floor. With restraint anger, he stared down at his reflection through the bloodied surface of his real sword. His hands faintly shook at his sides. Gradually, the sun emerged from the clouds.

The drapes of the colourful dawn merged with the sun's warmth. The day began.

He could not afford to lose this battle.


	3. Cage of Feathers

**I do not own Naruto.**

**Just a small glossary beforehand:  
-Samisen: Japanese guitar  
-obi: belt for kimonos**

Cage of Feathers  
_by Clementive_

The constant movement of the palanquin had lulled Shizune to sleep. Tenten tried to close her eyes and rest but apprehension had crept in every corner of her mind. Her heart demanded revenge, her head screamed for sanity. She had three hidden kunai in the silk of her robes and he had an army. She was a dancer, he was a shogun.

She had no power. She was doll, sitting back on soft cushions and caged in a vast silver and black kimono.

She forced breaths out of lungs. Her head was heavy, clouded by the moist air in the palanquin as the curtains remained shut. The warmth of the sun foreshadowed the end of a chilly spring.

Warily, Tenten eyed the closed curtains. They had left the small houses of the riverside. The playhouse was roughly a pale shadow behind them. The palanquin turned towards a secondary road and then towards the country side. Sweat pearled on her forehead.

Absent-minded, the young woman agitated her fan. The palanquin followed empty streets tightly escorted by four armed men and their team leader and his large canine. She was confused when the street noises faded behind them. She was lost when they kept marching, lost and alone. The silver blades had warmed up against her skin.

_We are not going to the Hyuuga compound_, she concluded.

Her neck pickled with the haunting curious stares of the small folk. Children had laughed and run alongside the palanquin. Their silhouettes had been roughly drawn through the thin curtains. Their voices had rung high to her ears. She shuddered; one day, one of the little girls may sleep where she had slept for the past eight years. Would they smile if they knew they could be sold? Would they even sleep at night knowing about greed and poverty? Her mind reeled on the thought and she suddenly needed some air. She may bear a girl and be forced to send her to Tsunade. A girl was no heir.

Tenten saw the contours of the trees through the thin layer of the curtains. Faintly, she smelled pines and horse sweat. She could feel through the curtains, the sun grazing her skin. She shivered in the moist heat, her hand rising for the curtains. Firmly, Shizune stopped her hand.

"Your complexion will darken in the sunlight, Tenten-sama."

Her legs were rigid and her knuckles had turned white around her fan. Her insides felt hollow. Her long dark hair was heavy, pressed against her neck by sweat. A little girl haunted her thoughts. She had two buns, Chinese blood and a Japanese army unfolding before her.

"Ask them to stop, Shizune, I need some air."

"Tsunade-sama would not approve of your behaviour, Tenten-sama."

Shizune's sermon caught in her throat. She watched pure fear ghostly grazing Tenten's features. The servant eyed her paling cheeks with a horrified expression. The older woman passed her head through the curtain by her side and screamed something at the nearest guard. The palanquin quivered and stopped.

For a brief moment, the Chinese woman's muscles untightened in the calmness of the trees, in the silence of the guards.

Shizune stepped out of the palanquin before her, opening hurriedly a dark sunshade. The men dropped their gaze on the ground when Tenten stepped out from the palanquin. She closed her eyes as bitterness filled her mouth. The men would never look at her again. Neji Hyuuga was the only one who could lay eyes on her now.

She took a few steps towards the surrounding trees. They seemed to engulf her in the silence of the clearing. She could feel past, present and future little girls running through the shades of the trees, escaping from peasant labors.

She shook her head. She had always had a disdain for weakness, for meek tumbling women. She could feel the guards' uneasiness, the heat of the dying spring. Her fingers closed one by one around the kunai in her sleeve. Tenten looked through the green leaves of the near bushes.

She could run away.

She licked her lips ignoring Shizune worried glance and soothing words. She could forget about revenge, about her debt to Tsunade. She could disappear between the trees and reach the nearest village. She could start over, bear girls and sons for a farmer. An old habit crept on her lips, a fake smile. She could but she wouldn't.

She wasn't _that_ child, not anymore. That child starved to death on a raft. Her lithe body swamped in the dark sea between China and Japan.

Her features thawed in the shade of the parasol. She would dance until the last act. Slowly, deliberate steps rustled through the grass behind her.

"Is my lady unwell?"

She let go of her kunai as she came back to her senses. She was no coward. She had been taught to be a fighter. _I will fight them_, she promised to herself. Slowly, Tenten averted her eyes from the tall trees and turned her head towards the man who had addressed her. Behind her, the wind whispered through the rustling leaves. Before her, a man took slow steps towards her. He had broad shoulders and thick legs. _No katana on his hip_, Tenten furrowed her thin brows. Her eyes darted on the Inuzuka sign on his warrior robes. Timidly, he raised his head and she saw the same signs on his cheeks.

"You are mistaken, Inuzuka-sama. I am no lady."

Her lips curled tiredly into a small smile. She could feel the Hyuuga's threats under the soldier's blush. She could weigh the silky taste of power on her tongue. He smelled of fear and submission.

"I… I wouldn't want to further delay our journey," he muttered uneasily. "We are still a few leagues away from our destination. Traveling by night is not safe, madam."

Tenten remained silent. Feeling the caress of the wind on her skin, she hesitated. She wanted to ask for a horse but Shizune would never let her ride. Strong will straightened her back. Her mask was back on.

"Tenten-sama? We should-"

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a flicker of the light. The trees seemed to still in the wind. The birds cried out and claimed the sky. Coldness ran through her veins and her eyes widened. Lightly, a fallen feather caressed her cheek.

A curved dagger mirrored the brightened air as the feather fell at her feet.

-X-

He ran. The leaves closed behind him. The branches whipped his cheeks and neck before him. His steps carried him back towards the capital. Tiredly, he wiped the sweat from his eyes.

He kept running. He raced against time and her hazel eyes.

_He had seen her dance. He had followed the abandon in her shoulders, her corded-like muscles in her legs. He had longed for the movement of her cascading hair. His eyes had trailed on her bending back, on her swinging hips. _

He grunted, his right hand pressed against his sides. He clenched his teeth. Behind him, the last of them died. Somehow, the woman had lied to him. The concubine was not alone, she had an escort.

He growled. He could feel their loss biting at his pride, at his name.

_He had seen her fall to the ground and rise up again. Smoothly, unhurriedly, graceful. He had seen triumphed over the fastest song rippling from a samisen. _

His eyes darted to the marks on the surrounding trees. He was near.

_He had seen her smile and bow exposing her slender neck._

_He had watched her, in her kimono. He had found her marked with the color of the Hyuuga. _

His vision wavered before his eyes. The sun could no longer get through the dense branches. Faintly, he tumbled. Their screams ceased behind him. The fight was over. Branches snapped behind him. A dog yapped, growing nearer.

Frantic breaths escaped his chest. Pain drained his energy and he leaned against a tree.

_He had tried to kill her._

Blood dripped from his wounded stomach. His spasmodic hand closed around the handle of the kunai trapped in his flesh.

-X-

The wooden veranda creaked under their combined weights. The two officiers walked side-by-side in a hurried demeanour. In the courtyard, men were training half-heartedly as they watched them walk by. _How troublesome, they are watching our every step_, Shikamaru thought. Kiba Inuzuka kept glimpsing at his superior. Servants of the Hyuuga compound bowed on their passage. A few elders had stopped them requiring some details but Shikamaru had brushed past them with cold courtesy.

"Stop looking at me, Kiba, their stares are troublesome enough," he hissed.

"They were highwaymen," his lieutenant replied through his teeth. "Hyuuga is overthinking this. _You_ are overthinking this."

Shikamaru slowed his pace and turned briskly on his right. They were everywhere. Wherever he turned, pearl eyes would stare back at him with animosity. Lazily, he watched two clan-men walked by stealing curious glance at them.

"I don't believe in coincidences."

He kneeled before two black sliding doors. Still grunting, Kiba dropped to his knees. The servants didn't wait for their request before sliding the doors open.

Both men deeply bowed. Kiba could feel his breath hitched in his throat. Silence only answered their bow. He could feel Shikamaru's body stiffen next to his. They waited for the rage, the outburst.

"You are reckless, Inuzuka."

The words rang out icily. The baritone voice quivered with rage. Neji Hyuuga glared down at the bowing forms of the lieutenant and the captain of his police force. More than ever, the shogun needed to win. The battlefield was expanded. He could see the shades of new pawns moving across the chessboard.

"Sit, both of you."

Slowly, they sat up moving inside the room. The doors slid closed behind them. The shogun was kneeling before them in dark training robes. His sheltered katana lay by his right knee. His features seemed pinched and his complexion paler than usual.

"What could have possibly forced you to stop in the middle of the road?"

Kiba rigidly endured Neji's piercing pale eyes on him. Her plain face flashed through his mind. He could almost feel her hazel eyes on him as he faced Neji.

"She requested a halt, Hyuuga-sama."

Shikamaru and Neji exchanged a glance. Nara slowly nodded attesting of his lieutenant's words. Kiba watched the inaudible exchange through narrowed eyes.

"They were highwaymen, Hyuuga-sama," he added sternly.

"You killed them all, Inuzuka, now how can we be certain of that matter?"

The reply took him back. His jaw bone worked as he dropped his gaze. The truth was he didn't know. He assumed so as they fought with poor skills and damaged weaponry.

"Tell him what you told me, Shikamaru."

Pearl orbs gleamed in the semi-darkness as they remained fixed on his face. Appalled by their gleam, Kiba sat entranced. Shikamaru's languid voice sounded farther away.

"Two Hyuuga from secondary branches were at Tsunade's pleasure house yesterday."

The shogun leaned in towards him, dark strands falling out of his low braid. A savage look on his face, his voice was a mere whisper.

"You will survey the area. In three days, you will report directly to Nara. You will not stop anywhere or talk to anyone else than him."

His forehead touched the floor. When Kiba rose again, the shogun at turned his head towards his captain. Kiba quickly glanced towards the kneeling form of Shikamaru. Expressionless dark eyes stared back at him. The servants opened the doors behind him. He was dismissed. Kiba faded in the halls of the compound, a dreaded feeling of guilt twisting his insides.

The air smelled of sweat and was filled with cries. Before them, men were still training. They twisted with intensity when they felt their leader's piercing eyes on them. In silence, both men kneed side-by-side looking through the opened doors.

"You were too harsh, Neji. You need allies, not new troublesome enemies."

"He shouldn't have stopped the palanquin," he replied stubbornly.

Shikamaru sighed deeply, stealing a glance at the warlord. Power had sickened him. It had stolen his sleep time. He could feel his new pawn in Kiba's retreating shadow. The sun had lowered in the sky. Shadows only seemed longer.

"She _asked _him to stop. That was probably her last glimpse at freedom. You sent her ten leagues away from the nearest village. You are a troublesome man, Neji."

A ghostly smirk played on the shogun's lips. The captain didn't understand. The Nara clan-man didn't feel power flowing through his veins. He didn't see disgust dripping from his uncles and cousins. He didn't have a mark on his forehead that should have had cast him away from the line of succession.

Power hadn't claimed _him_.

"If she had an inside in the attack, she won't cause me anymore trouble. If she hadn't, my enemies won't win her to their cause."

"In other words, she is your prisoner," Shikamaru replied flatly.

Neji grabbed his katana and rose to his feet. With no further comment, he left the room. Shikamaru remained where he sat, listening to the retreating steps of the shogun. He could see faint culpability perched on his shoulders. The sun was leisurely descending in the sky. Shikamaru glanced at the yellowish cloud carried by the rising wind.

The Hyuuga shogun had joined the training ground. Three men circled him and he moved. His blade silvered the air over and over. He won over and over.

He was a shogun, a warlord.

She was his caged bird, a woman.

-X-

Tenten plunged her face in the water. _Careless!_ She had been so careless. She had felt the dance of the kunai through her core. He mask had slipped and she couldn't be certain that no one had seen her. She would have moved if the Inuzuka clan-man hadn't firmly held her against the ground.

She had wanted to fight. She had longed for it. She closed her eyes rubbing her wet face. Shizune's scream still pierced through her memory. She had thrown a kunai. She shivered, her head still pressed against her damp palms. _I am such a fool!_

Behind her, Shizune maintained her balance with careful steps. She filled the bath with two more pails. Steam rose from the bath. Nibble fingers worked at her silky obi. She felt her robes loosened around her as she had felt her mask melt under the harsh glare of the sun.

"Tenten-sama, you should stop thinking about it. Inuzuka-sama had killed them all. You shouldn't be scared."

The young woman forced a smile to her lips. She felt hollow, her insides twisted in a knot. The sun had already disappeared, leaving a cooler wind being. Softly, the whispers of the night voiced the wolves' awakening. Nervousness sprang through her body.

"You are right, Shizune."

The slats of the veranda creaked almost imperceptibly and she shivered. They were far away from any village. The mansion was luxurious but the garden was surrounded by a tall fence. They were veiled from the world. She had explored the veranda and dread had filled her when she had seen the stagnated water, misplaced rocks and dry ground. She knew someone had come here recently. She had found an office where many rolls lay half opened.

Tenten had become one more of his hidden secrets. She was the doll in the shogun's creaking mansion.

Her hands shook as she remembered the kunai leaving her hand. It had felt so good then, when it had pierced through the shades of the tree. Then, she heard a muffled scream. Tenten looked down at her hands. Couldn't Shizune smell it? There was blood on her hands.

She had killed.

"You are leaving tomorrow."

Her muscles screamed for rest. Her head swan from one side to the other, she stopped Shizune's work on her robes. Shizune furrowed her brows, clicking her tongue in disapproval. Roughly, the servant writhed from her grasp. Distantly, a horse huffed.

"Tsunade-sama is waiting for me. I am certain, though, Hyuuga-sama will provide you with all the servants that he will see fit."

Tenten slowly nodded, her eyes resting on her small wooden chest. The room darkened and she closed her eyes. Her neck ached under her hair weight. The mansion seemed to engulf all of her belongings. A wooden chest next to a large futon. She had nothing else; only two kunai remained.

Her eyes snapped opened. The door had slid open behind them. The servant's cold hands clawed her naked shoulder.

Tenten knew before turning. Dazed, she watched Shizune's dark eyes widened, reflecting a tall figure. Two drops of blood ran on her shoulder blade and the cold hands were gone. A tremor broke Shizune's body and she fell, pressed her forehead against the acajou floor.

Her obi was a silk trail on the wooden floor. She felt exposed, her kimono revealing her cleavage and her left shoulder. Her body turned cold as she watched the human shadow grow on the wall facing her.

She felt bare, tightening her robes around her.

"Hyuuga-sama," she whispered.

She was his and she had no place to run.

-X-

Smoothly, his fingers traced patterns on the soft skin of her back. Her pale eyelashes fluttered in her sleep. He inhaled deeply. She was beautiful.

Shikamaru lay back on his back, gazing at the ceiling. Curled on her sides, next to him, she weighed more on his mind than when they were apart. He sighed listening to her regular breathing. At her side, he always wondered if he should stop _this_. He wondered if he should buy her freedom instead; give her a home and children. A name, _his_ name. He always stopped himself from asking Tsunade for the price. Watching her sleeping form, her long hair veiling her body, his resolutions always deserted him. When her pale skin shone in the moonlight, he often wondered if she would come to him on her own. If while he watched her sleep, she only dreamt of his hands, his face, his body over hers.

She was the spider weaving love and lust in men's heart. Sometimes, he watched from afar the nervous backs of powerful men entering the compound. He would then leap back in the shadows, the bitter taste of her beauty driving him away. She was _his_ troublesome woman. Tonight. However, he always thought of tomorrow whenever he held her face.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. This situation _was_ troublesome. His lazy steps would always bring him back to her arms. He would find her loud at times, with a romantic soul that would send him to a florist in the middle of the night. That troublesome woman was moody, outspoken. Her voice could cover the mutters of traditional women from the entire area. However, she could tune off his sluggishness with a single smile or shriek.

"Shika…" she murmured in her slumber, "why are you frowning?"

Hesitantly, he rested his head on the crook of her neck. She never pushed him away but instinctively he always expected her to. He closed his eyes, breathing in his fragrance on her. The scent of tobacco seemed to linger more and more on her skin. His lips ghostly moved across her neck.

"Just sleep, troublesome woman."

She had no price and he had a plan.

-X-

**I hope you enjoyed! :) Please, leave a review!**


	4. Velvet Mask

**Sorry for the long wait, but school work literally crushed me. There is also the fact that I prefer a slower update over a rushed one with a bunch of grammar mistakes. So, here it is!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

Velvet Mask**  
**_By Clementive_

The steam whirled above the wooden bath.

She tried to cover herself. Her arms sheltered her torso and she bent over. Her hair cascaded before her visage, veiling her while exposing her shoulders. Tenten could hear Shizune's erratic breathing behind her. Surprise probably still creased her forehead, she mused.

"Your services will no longer be necessary, servant. Gather your things and a soldier will escort you back to your compound."

Tenten shivered, her mouth was suddenly dry. His voice was low but clear. He had the voice of a man used to be obeyed, he had the voice of power. She felt her heart beat against her rib cage, as she heard the rustle of his robes drawing nearer. She heard Shizune's gasp and hesitant retreating steps. She forced herself to remain still. She had simply exchanged her silk cage for an iron one. The concubine closed her eyes, sweat from the steam pickled her forehead.

"One more thing, before you go; close the curtains of the palanquin. Insects are frequent in this area."

Her gut twisted and her blood drained from her face. Tsunade's voice mocked her bending shape. Teasingly, it whispered in her ear: _"__you will let no one see you. I want the small folks to talk and fantasize about you."_ She had been _his_ pawn all along. Now, Shizune would leave and she was in no position to tell anyone where the dancer had been. Without a trace, she would disappear, erased from memory. She could feel her moist hands through her kimono. She had come and thought for a second that she could beat him, a warlord.

She was a mere caged bird. _His_.

Bitterly, she heard the doors slide closed behind the servant. With her, her last glimpse of freedom disappeared. She waited, her shoulder gleaming with sweat. She thought of the hot bath, of the hidden kunai beneath the slat in her room. Her mind whirled like the hot steam. She was trapped, exposed.

Her hair moved and she saw pale fingers. He was reaching for her.

She drew back, he caught her. With firm fingers tucked under her chin, the shogun raised her face to his level. She was now facing him. His face was long and his jaw, strong. She could see her widened eyes, her gaping rosy lips reflected in his pearl eyes. Short bristle covered his cheeks, dark circles circled his eyes. She could see the void of death in them. Falling men and a rising warlord. His brows were furrowed and his eyes traveled on her face. He watched her inhale under his touch. His skin burned hers, her tongue tasted acid. 'Will I ever get accustomed to his touch?'

A few months before the late shogun died, he had come see her dance. She remembered the stiffness in her muscles, the knot in her stomach and his pained piercing eyes. Sickness had been eating his flesh and she danced. It was the first time she had danced with a kunai between her breasts.

"Tell me your name."

Now watching his nephew, she felt the same sick feeling in her stomach; the ache for the kill, the repulsion towards death. She felt her resolve weakened. She thought of her thrown kunai, of a dead man in the forest. Under a moonless welkin, perhaps she would be able to do it. The blade would pierce his skin through the veil of the night and she would rest upon his cadaver.

Only then would she know whether she was a killer or not.

"Tenten, Hyuuga-sama."

'Heaven…' he mused. The shogun saw no trace of it on her face. Yet, his fingers itched over her skin. She was his refuge from the political machinations of his household, the future mother of his children.

"Is that your real name?"

She smiled faintly through his grip. They always ask, _every one of them_. 'You may be a shogun, Hyuuga-sama, but you are still a man. I even bet you are mortal…'

"It is the name I was born with, Hyuuga-sama."

He nodded curtly, withdrawing his hand from her face. He looked down at the abandoned obi. Tenten felt the waves of uneasiness settled between them.

Her hands tightened their holds on her falling kimono. Whenever a man watched her face, she saw the reflection of her own plainness in his. Their regard would pass through her and their attention would shift. Her elegance was in her movements, in the small talk she would mutter through smiling lips.

"I will send for a servant tomorrow. I have an errand boy that you may use as you see fit. Of course, this mansion is yours as it is the custom." His voice was harsh, his eyes cold. The young woman looked down at the pooling silk at his feet.

Tenten thought of the empty halls and bare rooms. She had nothing; this carcass of wood, this _mansion_, was Tsunade's. Her debts still chained her to her mistress after all. 'You may have hidden me, Hyuuga-sama, but she will find me. Don't worry about it.' She plastered a meek smile on her lips before bowing lightly before him. She had noticed throughout the years that men always wrongfully assumed that women first belong to them. Mere pawns.

"I thank Hyuuga-sama for his generosity."

Through her thick eyelashes, she watched relief spread on his features. 'Women first belong to their emotions and their schemes, Hyuuga-sama'.

Her body folded on his reactions and she was moving, barely exposing her neck, her shoulders, her wrists. His look switched and the game of masquerade began. A perfect balanced dance.

"If Hyuuga-sama would excuse me, I would like to take my bath before the water turns cold."

She smiled meekly, her head pointing in the direction of the fading steam. Reluctantly, his cold eyes left the curve of her neck. Uneasiness straightened his posture and he reached the door. Her hair fell before her face as she bowed. It veiled her smirk, her first win. 'You won't touch me tonight, Hyuuga-sama.'

Neji Hyuuga blinked when he shut the door behind him. Then he frowned, his hand reaching back for the handle of the door. He clenched his teeth as realization hit him; a concubine had dismissed him.

A concubine who seemed to know everything about power and deception.

His hand fell back at his side.

-X-

_The wind softly howled at her doors and the moon shone above. The wife remembered their wedding night; his absence and her shame. After five years of matrimonial bonds, she still thought he will come to love her. She had played the game, outrun all of his prospects. She lied, she smiled, and she had blood on her hands. _

_Her beautiful features twisted with rage. She seemed disfigured without her velvet mask. She had bowed, she had cherished him. Every day. 'He can't leave me. I can't let him!' The wife laughed bitterly in the darkness of the night, its breath playing through her hair. If the dancer disappears he would have no choice but to come back. Her despair weighed heavy on her shoulders, it had drawn shadows beneath her eyes. It exhausted her. _

_She had hoped the Morino kid wouldn't fail her. _

_She thought of his eyes when she told him of the mansion her husband had bought in the northern lands. She had watched the seed of lust and love hatched within him. _

_The foolish kid had run towards her while jealousy had ripped inside of her. Whenever her husband said her name, his face was blank, cold. There was only one thing that her husband had managed to teach her about his world; honor. _

_The wife had a katana beside her. If the kid were alive, her husband would have known. With unmasked relief, he would have asked for her life. _

_And that was the only thing she wouldn't give up for him. _

_She vowed to herself he would pay. _

-X-

_He caressed her cheek, she flinched. _

He watched her sleep from the frame of the sliding doors. Neji leaned on the wooden frame as her torso rose and fell. Inhale, exhale. The grasshoppers whistled through the night. The stars were clouded and the wind blew inside the bittersweet scent of the earth.

He remembered his first campaign in the north. A sign of his hand and servants would undress for him. Then, his uncle chose him to succeed him despite the mark on his forehead. Illegitimate children would have become a problem. The clan chose a wife for him but the woman remained barren. They snickered while sipping their tea. A branch member would never live past the seal. At his death, the elders will erase his name from the annals of the clan. Childless leaders could only die in dishonor.

The Hyuuga clan could leave no room for dishonor.

_He held her, she turned her head. _

Watching her sleep, her silky hair spread across the double-futon, Neji envisioned her half-dressed form through the steam of the bath. He had been wrong; she could not play the game. She held no velvet mask against her face. The shogun could see right through her act. A mere pawn, she was no queen.

"Tenten", he whispered her name with twisted lips. He believed fate did not enchain him to his old beliefs anymore. There she was though with her little fingers clenched in a fist, her rhythmic breathing and her name. Heaven was mocking him and birds have deserted the woods surrounding the mansion.

His jaw clenched in frustration. She muttered in her sleep and she rolled towards the opened sliding doors. The shogun had thought it would be refreshing a supple body beneath his that knew nothing of his political situation. Then, he caught a glimpse of power through the steam and he had hopes. He had thought of Shikamaru while she bathed and he had smirked. 'You need allies, Hyuuga, not new troublesome enemies.'

_He saw hatred through her smile, anger and humiliation in every shadow of her visage. _

He had thought only of himself. He had forced her into his world of politics and machinations. She knew fake smiles, beautiful garments and dark secrets. However, she was no fighter, a mere pawn. Cast in the moonlight, her face seemed inhumane. Almost beautiful. Neji shook his head turning towards the hall. She was plain, not weak or strong. Merely plain.

The Hyuuga clan could leave no room for plainness.

_He could not touch her. He left. _

She was no ally, she was a burden. A mere vessel. He tightly shut the doors.

In the gleam of the night, a smirk broke her perfect velvet mask.

-X-

The white sheet covered the corpse. His men swarmed above his head in the halls of the police force headquarter. Behind him, the solder was dancing from one foot to the other. Shikamaru Nara furrowed his brows slowly reaching for the thin fabric. He barely lifted it up scrutinizing the hardened face beneath. Two torches crackled on the wall and the scent of ashes and death thickened around them.

"We found him in the forest near the road where Inuzuka-san was attacked."

The captain let out a sigh releasing the sheet from his hold. 'This is such a drag…' Corpses were raining down on him since the Hyuuga got the idea of buying a concubine. The room was humid despite the temperature above ground. Shikamaru had always felt uncomfortable in the darkness of the morgue. Death led too many times to honour debts under his watch. He snickered abruptly falling was never honourable enough for the clans.

"There was this kunai in his stomach."

He glanced over his shoulder at his subordinate handing him out a kunai. Carefully, the captain weighed the kunai in his palm. He frowned at the light weight, the curve of the handle. The blade glowed softly in the torch light. Deliberately, he turned his back to the corpse. With stern eyes, the captain stared at the soldier now before him. He leveled his eyes on his doubting stare, the set of his uneasiness settled in his shoulders.

"Do you find this troublesome?" he asked with a lazy demeanour. "Highwaymen killed by the lieutenant team?"

"No, sir! The-the kunai is just… unusual."

'_I_ think, troublesome man, while _you_ act. I have no need of a second thinking head.' Shadows crept on the right side of his face. He leaned closer towards his fidgeting subordinate.

"Kunai are kunai. Highwaymen are highwaymen. There is nothing unusual with that." His voice was low but his dark orbs pierced through him.

"Y-yes, Nara-sama!" The soldier stammered straightening his back.

His glance turned back to the corpse. A chilly sensation ran through his spine and he thought of his lover and her golden hair. Death was wrapping its influence around her compound, around her mistress. The captain knew he would have to act promptly or he may never have the chance to do so.

"Now, tell me… does this troublesome corpse have a name?"

"We didn't find any clan heraldry on him. The Highwaymen have all remained anonymous for now."

"How troublesome… Send word to the clans then. Tell them that we have unclaimed bodies.

Briskly, he made a lazy wave of the hand and the soldier bowed. Hurriedly, he went back to his desk. The flames quivered through the abrupt movement of the soldier. The shadows drawn on the wall came to life.

Shikamaru slowly sighed, his hand tightening around the kunai. He smirked. The kunai had been a reckless move, but surprising nonetheless. Since Asuma died he didn't have a good shoji game in a while and this one was bound to be interesting.

'So which one was it, the servant or the concubine?'

-X-

The clouds hung heavily above her head. Shizune frowned looking up at the sky when she stepped into the yard of the compound. The air was charged with humidity but the sun was rising, its rays piercing through the charcoal clouds. The darkness still held the memory of her scream, of fallen men. She bit her lips wondering if rain would taste like blood from now on.

She heard the faint noise of the horses' hooves hammering the dry road. The soldiers had set the palanquin near the entrance. The servant hurried to the veranda slipping out of her sandals. She had a bad feeling about the young Hyuuga lord. The soldiers had ridden so close to the curtains that even if she had opened them to localize where he had taken Tenten she would have seen only the lustrous coat of a horse.

She shivered; his expressionless eyes still seemed to follow her.

Tsunade would not be happy with her. She had seen nothing of use. She had expected Tenten to be sent away from the Hyuuga compound, but she thought Shizune would have the time to localize the area. She only knew it was in the northern area of the shogunate.

Without a sound, she slid the doors opened and walked softly towards her mistress' room. Faintly, the dark haired woman could see a candle burning through the thin screens. She did not know what Tsunade had in mind but she was playing with fire while gambling on wind. Exhausted, she sighed while tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. She fell on her knees lightly tapping on the floral screen.

"Come in!"

She gulped silently wondering what she would think of the situation. They were slowly losing control on Tenten. She slid the doors opened and bowed lowly. Tsunade was kneeling before her desk, her brush still froze mid-air. A drop of dark ink crashed on her desk. Behind her, the sun colored the sky in tones of light pink and yellow. The clouds seemed more sinister.

"Shizune?" The blond haired woman exclaimed in awe.

The servant looked up, her cheeks reddening under the narrowed glance of her mistress. Gradually, her gut twisted beneath her hardening glare.

"Where the hell is Tenten?"

"She is with Hyuuga-sama, Tsunade-sama. He… he sent me away," she shuttered, avoiding her mistress' light brown eyes.

Tsunade let go of her writing brush. Slowly, she rose to her feet with contained anger. Her hand slammed the doors of the veranda shut and she turned back to her servant. She should have guessed playing against the Hyuuga would be more complicated than that.

"Where are they?"

She kneeled back on her cushion. She knew before Shizune opened her mouth in the way her glance shifted on the floor. She clenched her teeth. She simply couldn't let Tenten slip out of her control. Sluggishly, she leaned forward her still narrowed eyes.

"I have no idea, Tsunade-sama. He sent me away during the night so I couldn't get a good view of the surroundings. The guards were watching me closely."

The older woman closed her eyes, her hand balling into a fist on the letter she had received this morning. She needed to find a way to limit the damages before_ he_ arrived. She had come too far there was no going back. Besides, _he_ had a hostage. She simply _couldn't_ go back on her words.

"Damn Hyuuga! He planned all of this!" She growled.

Her fist knocked out half of the things on desk. Her servant could see rage boiling out of her with her body tremors. Tenten was useless if she could not reach her. She needed a new plan but she had no more pawn to spare. She frowned tapping her chin with a sharp nail. Warlords have very little patience for failure and she knew it better than everyone.

Shizune hesitated watching the echoes of Tsunade's inner war flash through her features. The shogun's piercing glare followed her. He seemed to smirk, he always wins.

"Tsunade-sama, there is another problem."

"What is it now?"

Her breath stopped in her throat. Her servant's face hardened in a grave mask. There was no place for velvet anymore.

"We were attacked on our way there." Shizune slowly licked her lips as Tsunade's eyes widened. "_Someone_ knows where they are and...and _this someone_ wants her head."

-X-

The oversized dog whined at his master's hip. Akamaru hated the smell of the small village. Dusk was thick with moist air. The proximity of the lake carried the scent of a hundred's family habit to throw out everything in the waters. Faintly, Kiba Inuzuka could hear the awakening of the villagers a league from him.

Tiredly, the lieutenant patted his dog on the head. His back was pressed against a tree, his legs swinging in the void. The ground lied a few feet under him. He had watched the entries and exists of powerful men and miscreants from lower casts since last night. He thought he had something when a palanquin arrived a few hours ago but the Hyuuga concubine's servant walked out.

He growled shifting his weight and stretching his legs. 'This is useless'. During the day, only a few errand boys walked in and out of the compound. He rested his eyes thinking of Neji's anger. He had never understood political games between powerful men. His clan had specialized in tracking techniques. There was no main or branch households in the compound. They only knew about dogs and friendship. Dogs fought for territory but they were loyal; fighters but not killers. The warlords cheated one another for power, power they even so slightly could handle.

Dogs simply did not care about power or bloodline.

Dawn erased the last traces of the dark welkin. The sun pierced through the foliage of the tree. Kiba stirred in his half-sleep. His eyes narrowed in the sunlight and his dog whined licking his hand.

"Yeah… I am hungry too, Akamaru."

He turned his face from right to left. The street was deserted, the soft wind played in the blooming flowers surrounding the pleasure house. Soon, whooping cranes would add to the sounds of nature. Summer was drawing nearer. And summer was the time of wars.

He climbed down. When he reached the ground, his white dog landed heavily next to him. Branches cracked beneath their steps and they made their way towards the village. Nervousness made the lieutenant tucked at his collar. The air warmed under the rising sun. Tracking down soldiers was his forte while surveillance was a mere game of hide-and-seek. _A childish game_. Dogs ran in the wild, they normally did not climb up trees and wait for their bait.

Cringing at the loud noise of the dry branches their weight broke, he pondered on the Hyuuga's anger. Kiba had visited the pleasure house a few times with his captain when he first met Ino Yamanaka. He could not understand his captain's interest in the working girl. Even though, she was beautiful, her beauty was not restricted to him. Dogs did not share their mate.

Suddenly, white fur bristled, his master dropped to one knee frowning. He glanced towards the origin of the muffled neighs. He could see through the branches the swinging movement of a palanquin. On each side of which, a horse trotted. Both soldiers had a white heraldry embroidered on the back of their fighting garments. Kiba cursed under his breath patting twice his dog's flank. They remained still watching through narrowed dark eyes and flared nostrils, a familiar dark haired stature stepped out of the palanquin in the pleasure house courtyard.

'Neji will not like it…'

The wind bent the blooming flowers and he turned his head at this instant. Onyx eyes icily surveyed the wood.

Uchiha Sasuke.

A petite woman appeared clinging at his side, her velvet mask contrasted with her porcelain skin. His hostage was finally home.

-X-

**Please leave a review! Feedback is always appreciated. :) **


	5. Puppet of Blood

I felt generous (and I had time) so I give you 1000 extra words. :D Thank you for your reviews! I hope you enjoy! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

-X-

**Puppet of Blood**  
_by Clementive_

He watched as Sasuke Uchiha's brows furrowed at the other palanquin in the yard. Quickly, his eyes shifted to the masked woman who brushed her gloved hand on the warlord's elbow.

They turned their back to the forest, crossing the stony path of the compound.

Kiba Inuzuka sniffed the air, tracking only the scent of ashes left by cooking pots. The perfume of the woman had left vague and faint trail. The other women in the pleasure house masked the scent of the one he did not recognize. Her gait had been familiar, but her gloved hand had pressed a velvet mask to her face and her cape had masked her silhouette. Kiba cursed under his breath motioning to his dog to remain in the shades of the forest.

The couple disappeared in the compound and their escort scattered in the forest. All his senses were in alert. He could hear the faint rustle of their warrior robes moved across the high herbs. The lieutenant gritted his teeth. He had become their prey.

He looked in Akamaru's dark eyes and they stood one another. He could feel his bestial side awake with his dog's thrill for the hunt.

They ran.

He felt the five soldiers walked in the traces of their soundless steps. The lieutenant tried to control his laboured breath but leagues of greenery had enclosed them in the depth of the forest. He had counted on their unfamiliarity with the land to ambush them. However, their steps were assured. They had not slowed once. They knew the path between those trees just as well as he did.

The smoke of the village meddled with the clouds and he almost sighed in relief. Then, the first dagger whistled at his ear. When it hit the trunk of the tree in front of him, his dog barked.

The buildings grew larger and Konoha unfolded before them. He gasped, a jolt of pain running as crimson liquid on his thigh.

The enemies were fifteen cubits behind them.

-X-

The last glimpse of her purple kimono disappeared behind the sliding doors when the soldier entered his office. Straightening his back, Shikamaru Nara laced his fingers together taking in the grave face of his subordinate. He fixed his brown eyes on the scroll he held in his fist. The morgue team had worked all night, dispatching messages to the clan to trace back the identity of the attacker. The Hyuuga corpse had remained untouched by its side.

The clan had still not claimed its branch member.

"Well?"

"The corpse is Idate Morino, Nara-sama."

The reporting soldier stood straight, his arms neatly on each of his sides. The captain rose to his feet closing his eyes. His breakfast was untouched on top of the document he needed to sign. His lover's note still lay beneath the plate of pastries. Her scent still surrounded him as trouble disturbed it. He sensed it in the hardened posture of his subordinate. His thought carried him to Morino Ibiki, captain of the interrogation unit.

Lazily, he opened his eyes. He had thought the incident was linked to another shogunate. An internal incident was always preferable to an external one. An internal incident meant the young Hyuuga lord had the upper hand. On the other hand, an external one meant that he would have to pay the price of blood. An eye for an eye, a kill for a kill.

"Inform Ibiki."

"I apologize, Nara-sama, but Morino-san was the one who recognized the corpse."

He avoided Shikamaru's dark orbs. 'Why am I surrounded by fools who squirm so much before me? Troublesome men.' He waved his soldier forward.

"What did Morino say exactly?"

"Morino-san said the kid was his brother. He said that Jirocho Wasabi, the clan leader, adopted him within the clan in his youth."

He narrowed his eyes, his hand reaching out in front of him. 'This is troublesome.' He received his position in the police forces after the Uchiha incident. When the two Uchiha heirs had fought over the control of the clan, Konoha sank in a civil war resulting in the banishment of the once famous clan. The emperor more consolidating than the stern Hyuuga shogun gave the two brothers a promising land near the western sea. Since then, they have fought over it. Yet, the Uchiha crest was still painted on the wall of his office. Whenever he looked up, he saw the renegade shadow of history. Shoguns now diluted power to maintain their control over the clans. No crest will replace it.

He saw through the Uchiha heraldry, war and honour for these were the ways of the clans.

"Give me the scroll."

As it unrolled on his desk, he saw the crest of the Wasabi clan. The red ink spoke by itself. A kill for a kill.

They demanded the corpse of a Hyuuga.

-X-

She tossed her blond hair above her shoulder as she smiled. She could still feel the taste of ashen on her lips.

Absent-minded, Ino Yamanaka gently pushed away children who wrestled around her. She hated when he did not come to her. She was playing a dangerous game whenever she came to him but his demeanour had frightened her. She knew nothing of politics but she knew the captain of the police forces probably better than he knew himself. Clans did not bother him. Honour did not force his hand in any matter. Whenever he frowned as he dressed up he thought of her and her shared body. She stared up at the lingering clouds. One had the shape of a dog.

She heard a muffled bark.

Ino snapped back to reality as her blue eyes followed a thin trail of dark drops at her feet. She looked around her as she picked up her pace towards the alley behind the police headquarters.

She saw his bloodied legs first, then the gigantic dog. Sweat had soaked his collar and the red tattoos on his cheeks were paled. She felt a scream building inside her chest ready to tear her throat. The man's eyes shot opened and his painful expression stopped her. Shaking her head, she noticed the sign of lieutenant of the forces around his bicep.

She stepped forward but the dog showed her its teeth.

"You are…Kiba-san!"

"Quiet!" His voice was a mere rasp.

She glanced over her shoulder dropping to her knees next to him. The dog watched her through narrowed dark lens as she settled his arm around her neck. Throwing back his head, he hissed in pain and shoved her away.

She panted and despite his weakness, he found her beautiful. Her blond hair framed her delicate face and his blood marked her kimono. Its long sleeves were as two dead wings beside her. Her face reddened and he almost laughed.

"Kiba-san, I need to take you to Shika-kun and for that I need you to stop moving."

She approached once more. Before he could stop her, she ripped his robes and managed to bandage his right thigh. He almost dozed off as she palpated his other members. Her hands were slick with his warm liquid.

"We met a year ago, do you remember Kiba-san?" she said distractively.

Roughly, she pulled the ragged cloth and she tied it. He clenched his teeth as the pain seized his open wound. The blood gradually stopped and her hands were neatly folder on her laps. He found her too calm, too calculating. In her grave blue eyes, he saw his captain looking back at him.

"Where did you learn to do that?" He muttered weakly.

"By an old friend."

She rose to her feet dusting her ruined kimono. She couldn't go back to Tsunade's compound in her state of dress. She couldn't explain that she had disobeyed her yet again and went to see her lover.

She gnawed her below lip. 'He will find this very troublesome.'

The name was a bare whisper but it shattered her calm breaking through her defenses. Her face turned back to the sleepy man a dark expression weighing down her eyelids.

Farther away, she heard a beast, a war cry.

-X-

Winter leaves whispered in her slumber. She saw the crest of his clan descending upon her, she felt dusk awakening to the drums of war. Her father leaned on against the silver blade he was beating. When she tried to touch him, he turned his calm face to the bloody moon. Slowly, his hand rose to point behind her.

Resting against a tree, a cadaver smiled at her through rotten teeth.

Tenten woke up in a jolt.

Her long silky hair was drenched with sweat. She closed her eyes, her heavy breathing breaking out of her chest. She wondered if it was the shogun's scent or the empty halls that awoke the nightmares. She shuddered in the warm breeze. Could death really blood in an early summer day? The sun had risen in the sky to mark the hour of the snake. Midday was already two hours away.

Someone had opened the doors to the veranda. Faintly, the breeze made the trees of the yard shiver in its warmth. Birds chirped perched on their branches. Unfilled, the bird feeder oscillated in the shades. She sighed pushing away the thin sheet tangled around her body.

Around her, the mansion creaked softly. It was empty. 'Home' she reminded herself. 'This is home.' The concubine glanced at the unwrinkled pillow beside her. She thought of his hands on her, of the bitter shake of his head when he roughly slid the screens shut. She remembered his eyes gleaming in the darkness of the room, his disgust painted across his trait.

Tenten smiled weakly. His touch burned and dug beneath her skin. She felt nauseous when it ran icily in her veins. She wondered when her parents died if they felt the same turmoil. If the Hyuuga's blade tasted the same. Burning hot and icy cold.

She shook her head pushing away the memory of the dead. Her hand reached for her green wooden chest next to the futon.

"I see that you are now awake, Tenten."

Her hand froze. The shadows moved behind her. A cane pushed the sliding doors farther open. She received the caress of the sun with a petrified expression.

The elder looked down through a half open eyelid. Wrinkles painted his death on his visage and neck. He set the cane back on the floor. She did not bow, she did not move.

She held three poisoned needles in her fist.

"It has been quite a while, Danzo-sama. I have begun to think you only like Tsunade-sama."

-X-

He heard the three soft knocks for the second time today. The brush paused and he frowned. He pushed opened the fake screens. Ino bit her lips and he sighed deeply. His mouth rounded to ask her if she knew how dangerous it was but his tongue never uttered the words. He saw the blood and her quivering hands.

"Ino!"

Alarmed, he grabbed her elbow when she stepped forward revealing the man behind her.

'How troublesome…'

He ushered her inside and he stepped out towards his lieutenant. A small smile curved his lips when he saw the bandaged limb. That woman never failed to surprise him. His breath was even and the dog had rested his snout on his master's lap. He took lieutenant by his armpits and dragged him inside. The white dog whined following them.

"Shikamaru," she muttered.

He stopped panting heavily. Kiba lay on his temporary couch as he calmly released his hold on his subordinate's body.

"He kept repeating that Sasuke-kun was back."

Shikamaru didn't feel surprise, anger or jealousy. His insides froze until he felt numb. Her face was composed, but her nails drew half-moon on her palms. His mind shattered.

Bitterly, he felt her slip between his fingers.

-X-

At last, she bowed and he remained standing, both of his palms pressed against the pommel of his cane. Tenten thought she would be safe from Tsunade for a longer while. She certainly did not expect her to contact Danzo. 'She must have been desperate to ask him to step in this masquerade.' She almost prayed for one servant to open the adjoining doors and run to the Hyuuga compound to report Danzo's entrance.

She expected a set of furious pearl orbs.

No one came. Only silence answered her pleas.

The concubine knew that a minimum of five men surrounded the compound. Danzo never walked alone. The path of power was always crowded whenever he crossed it. The blame deflected from him and he was always safe. He was always chasing a crown.

"Hyuuga-san bought you a quite interesting mansion. It is so far away from any village. You know, it is as if he wanted to hide you, Tenten."

She shrugged off his words. Her face remained composed, a small smile and innocent eyes. She knew the dance of the words.

"Ideal to become with child, don't you think, Danzo-sama," she replied lightly.

He glared down at her stepping in her room. With force, he snapped the screens shut with one hand. She now knew for sure why Tsunade had chosen her; she was the least likely to bear a Hyuuga child.

"You will bear no child of the young Hyuuga," the elder said menacingly.

He took out a bag of herbs from his robes and he threw it before her. She looked down at the contraceptive Chinese herbs. Her stare hardened. 'This is home. He is threatening me in my home.'

"If Danzo-sama is so blunt, then he should tell me right away what he truly wants from me."

Tenten wished she had a fan she could use as a mask. The ways of the geisha never failed to pinpoint dangerous men's intentions. The hunger for power always marked them and with the right wave of their long hair, they could open them up. They knew all of their secrets. The concubine only knew some of them.

"We simply want you to observe the shogun and report to us. We want you to encourage him to fight against Sasuke Uchiha for the claim of this shogunate. That is all."

She laughed lightly and her dark hair danced around her shoulders. With of power, it was never about small sacrifices. They exposed everything in terms of black and white while they manipulated the shades of grey.

"He doesn't me to tell him to fight off traitors. I suppose your interest means the older brother is now dead and that young Uchiha-sama is coming back."

Her thought led her to the tired face of the shogun, to his blazing white orbs. She felt the urge to protect him but men like Danzo rarely took no for an answer unless it was uttered by the dead. She played her part and she fidgeted the small bag of medicine.

She was a puppet ready to deliver her blows.

"Sasuke-kun has a hostage from this land. This is the beginning of both a civil and a global war, Tenten. Of course, Hyuuga-san doesn't know this and he _won't_. Like the incompetent young fool he is, he will react on impulse and the Uzumaki clan will march down on his clan."

"The Uzumaki clan?" She gave him a weak smile as if she was scolding a child. "They now lived in the north. This is no civil war, Danzo-sama"

"Tsunade has Uzumaki blood by her grandmother. Besides, in secret, she married her daughter to Naruto Uzumaki as she knew it would come to this."

His scar on his chin widened as he smirked. He snapped a last warning and he disappeared from her view. She heard his cane rhythmically hit the wooden floor. Her needles fell out of her moist palm and she shivered through the mist of the past.

She remembered the daughter's disappearance after the fall of the Uchiha clan.

She remembered her tears and her short pink hair.

"The fool! She ran to the Uchiha," she laughed bitterly.

-X-

They faced one another on the veranda. A shogi board was placed between them. Faceless servants had brought jasmine tea in porcelain cups. Beyond the dead branches, the concubine walked silently spinning the handle of her sunshades with her fingers. Her eyes wandered and her gut twisted. She wanted to scream that Danzo had threatened her. She wanted to shake the shogun and outline half of the plots against him. She looked over her shoulder at his hardened face. Their talk was uttered in hushed whispers.

She wanted to tell him about Uchiha's new pawn.

Between her will for revenge and his light caress, she couldn't find the words. She felt like an outcast as her heels broke through roots of the greyish flowers before her.

"I won't ask one of my men to take his life," the shogun snapped icily above the board.

Her inward screams eating at her, Tenten moved further away. She faced the fence, her freedom. She wanted to tell him one of his enemies knew how to effortlessly jump over it.

The two men were still hunched over their game.

Shikamaru Nara sighed heavily while moving one of his knights across the cherry wood board. With disdain, Neji gave the scroll back to his captain. He had nothing to do with a clan which had never fought for the unity of Japan. They simply knew nothing of the battlefield.

The wind chilled as the sun descended on the sky. Neji captured one of Shikamaru's silver generals. The last tastes of autumn lingered in the garden. The plants lay dead on the unfrozen ground and they would soon bloom again.

"You are not thinking this through, Hyuuga. Don't let what happened to your father clouded your judgement," Shikamaru said his eyes wandering slowly on the board.

The shogun paused before glaring at his captain. He didn't need to be scold like a child. He knew very well his father's death had been a mere pact of honor between his clan and the shogunate of the hidden cloud. However, when he thought of asking for one of his fellow clansmen to kill himself, he saw elders whispering among themselves and a grieving family.

They all lived and grew by the bud of honour. He had promised his name and his marked forehead would change the Hyuuga clan.

"Leave my father out of this," Neji hissed. "The Wasabi clan is not a warrior clan. We could exterminate them in two days."

Shikamaru slowly nodded as he took one sacrifice pawn from the board. Suddenly, her long blond hair appeared before his eyes. The name of the exiled clan almost crossed his lips in a bitter sound.

"No you couldn't because you will be fighting on two fronts. In this case, sacrificial pieces are necessary."

They faced one another disregarding the board. Shikamaru thought of Ino and Neji thought of war and blood.

"Two fronts?"

Nara's jaw clenched. Her calm face flashed through his mind. He wished Sasuke Uchiha had not returned. He wished he could have enjoyed Ino's breakfast before lying next to her at night. He wished he could still taste her skin without her mind wondering on him.

"Itachi Uchiha is dead."

Neji stood frozen and the pawns appeared now clearly in his mind. One by one, they withdrew from the shades. He was surrounded by all fronts.

"Then, Sasuke will come back to claim the land."

His shoulders refused to shrug the matter off. The Uchiha clan had come before the Hyuuga. They had witnessed the first of the inhabitants of the shogunate. They had been there since the very beginning.

They would easily find supporters among the other clans.

They could crush him.

"No, Neji. He's already here."

Tiredly, the shogun pinched the bridge of his nose. He opened his blank eyes when the Nara leader swept the board with the back of his hand.

"Listen to me, Neji. This is you."

Roughly, he set one of the knight pieces on the shogi board. Neji raised a doubtful brow at his captain. From the pieces, he took a handful. His clenched fist above the board, Shikamaru let all of the other pieces fall across the solidary knight.

"This is the rest of Japan."

The shogun pursued his lips. The knight stood alone. The evening echoed through the songs of the frogs as it erased the last traces of the summer day. At her feet, his concubine's sunshade lay abandoned.

"I have you and Kiba, now don't I?" He replied coldly narrowing his pearl eyes.

He was never alone. They chased him beyond his sleep, he was surrounded. No matter what he did, they came crawling back to him. 'I am not alone.' He repeated in his mind. The captain sketched his numb legs beside the board.

"We are not important enough to be on the board," he stated gravely. "But she may be. You need allies, Neji. More importantly, you need her."

Shikamaru inclined his head towards the woman standing still in the dying garden near the fence. Her green kimono glowed in the setting sun. Her dark hair covered her small frame. Her kunai seemed heavier in his robes as he thought of what Ino told him about Tenten's dance and many protectors. The thought spilled out of his mind and his face darkened. He thought only of Sasuke and Ino.

"What do you suggest that I do?" Neji asked in a mocking tone. "Ask my concubine what she thinks about the game of powerful shoguns?"

Shikamaru took her kunai out of his robes. In a flick of the wrist, he planted it in the middle of the board.

Like its edge, she was on a no man's land.

"I believe she is thinking about it right now, Hyuuga," he coldly stated.

The captain stood up on weak limbs. Sorrow was wrapped around him as he turned his back to the chess board.

"The Wasabi clan wants an answer by tomorrow."

The bloody sun descended upon him, summer was the time of war.

-X-

Her skin paled under the moonlight. Her murky eyes closed and she turned away from the fence. Her bones carried the hollowness she felt back to the mansion. In the darkness, only a candle burnt to the distance. Her bare feet reached the veranda and her hands hooked up her skirts. She could feel her mistress disapproving glance through every fiber of her body.

Her body was a mere shell now. Only ghost and death inhabited her.

"Your kill is causing me troublesome thoughts."

His voice swam in the sake placed at his side. She shuddered at the sight of the glinting blade. She recognized the curve, her lips paled but a fake innocent smile revealed her teeth.

"Don't bother."

Her smile froze on the corner of her lips. Sake clumsily guided him towards her. She didn't dare to move. She waited for the blow, the outburst, but he only griped her chin like the first time they met.

Her mind raced, she needed to choose her side now.

There was no hot steam surrounding them, no gaping kimono between them. Yet, she felt even more exposed with her kunai within her reach, its dead tied around its handle.

His inhales were deeper and his breath smelled of alcohol. She saw pain in the creases of his forehead. The memory of Danzo burned her tongue. Her nightmares still clouded her resolve. Her hand reached for the blade. Violently, the back of his hand slapped the board away. It rolled heavily onto the ground of the garden. The pieces spilled onto the earth like drops of blood.

She tried to squirm away from him but his arms circled her body. They moved like snakes until she felt trapped. Their faces were inches apart.

"One of my men will pay for your foolishness," he whispered.

He tasted her neck, she pushed him away. His breathing shortened, she narrowed her eyes. Fear made her trembled. She felt the vigor in his muscles, the weakness in hers. His eyes glowed and she saw her petrified self in them. She was a poor white puppet.

"Hyuuga-sama," her voice shook. "Sake has clouded your judgement. Women don't kill. Please, my lord, let me go."

The shogun leaned forward, he could smell her lie. He let go her chin but fury spread on his features. He was never alone but not once had he felt like the shogun. The shades controlled him, the elders plotted against him withdrawing their support whenever they judged fit. The Uchiha clan was now spitting on his title.

Growling, Neji watched anger knotted her shoulders' muscles. She was his but she didn't see him as her master either. He was a useless knight, fighting off shades for no one.

Tenten tried to hold her chin high but her back hit the screens of their bedroom.

"Hyuuga-sama, calm down."

He snickered and the darkness prowled around them. The moon disappeared above their heads. She felt his drunken rage and hers boiling in the shadows of the night.

"I am certain the glorious Hyuuga clan has done worse than ask for a clansman's life."

They murdered villages.

They murdered China.

They murdered her childhood.

She turned away from him snapping the screens open. He followed her inside. His touch only caressed the thin air, she moved away from him. She thought of the past battlefield between their two countries. They captured her father in the mist of her sixth birthday to bring him back to Japan before the Emperor. Men were mere war trophies.

And foolish women like her mother ran after their already dead men. They crossed the sea on quivering waters.

"Is that why I see hatred on your face whenever you look at me?"

Silence only answered him.

His anger cooled and he wanted to reach for her to make amends. He needed allies. He needed someone, anyone or merely her. He whispered her name over and over. It tasted heavy with the sake. An earthy heaven. His arms brought her shivering form to his chest. She both wanted to nudge closer in his warmth and draw back from it.

"Just give them a corpse if they want one, Hyuuga-sama," she snapped.

Neji tightened his embrace. He felt her stiffened but he chose to overlook it. The thought sobered him up. He thought of the Hyuuga corpse already in the morgue. A kill for a kill. Only a few hours distanced both dead, the Wasabi clan would see no difference.

He could save at least one of his men.

"Yes," he smirked kissing the top of her head. "They will have their corpse."

Her head rested on his chest like a puppet of blood. Her body was limp but inwardly, she was screaming.

Her soul was breaking.

She had chosen her side.

-X-

Feedback is always appreciated! Please review! ;)


	6. Light Touch

**For some reason, this chapter was particularly hard for me to write. I rewrote it at least twice but here it is: another 1000 extra words (I did it again it seems, ****Ami1010**** ;) ), a ShikaIno moment, a couple of NejiTen moments. I hope you enjoy! **

**Lili Bibi****: I tried to include as much NejiTen as I could. I know I have been quite a tease but I didn't want to rush their relationship. **

**Chisa Chispa****: I don't mind at all ahaha! I know my updates have become a little erratic. **

**-X-**

**Light Touch**  
_by Clementive_

She could feel them scrutinized her movements.

As the solar and lunar globes exchanged their place in the sky, buds bloomed a little more at each passing day. Insects buzzed once more awoken from their winter slumber. Summer in its dark red and orange robes called for war.

The sound of Danzo's cane still haunted the veranda and the Hyuuga still hadn't returned. Faceless servants would bring her meals at dawn in the kitchen before walking back to their village.

Tenten knew the rules, their watchful stares and their absent shadows. The seventh day, they would step out of the darkness and she would give them an answer in an inaudible whisper. They waited, they prowled, drawing each day nearer to the wooden fence.

Beyond the walls of the noble society, plots only hatched in the faintest whispers, the barest nods of the head and the most silent blows to the head.

Like wolves, they could smell the shogun's absence in the household, her blatant helplessness. Tenten could barely sleep at night. The sheets twisted in the folds of her sweaty body, her mind rarely giving in to sleep. She would feel the shogun's drunken embrace between her nightmares and their eyes would peer through the nightfall. Since their last encounter, the young lord hadn't come to her.

She was alone, trapped between his haunting pearl eyes and the watchful ones of Danzo's men.

In vain, Tenten had opened all the sliding doors in hope the mansion's emptiness would leak out and atone for her decision. She almost hoped the Hyuuga warlord would arrive before she could speak to Danzo's men.

She inhaled sharply in the sunlight's first daze. She let the breath fall out of her chest, she could not weaken now. She had held her first weapon at the age of twelve when she began dancing. Her first encounters with Danzo were a blur made of sullen words and elaborate movements. She only knew the world of power and its shades. She knew the consequences.

The wind's path echoed in the path of the opened sliding doors. The mansion murmured.

Tenten closed her eyes. Neatly, two kimonos were neatly laid out in front of her kneeling form. The seventh day was rising above the clouds.

Silently, she undressed in the rays of dawn. Silk lied like peeled skin at her side. Her hand did not tremble as it reached for the yellow kimono.

She hoped they were watching her. She hoped they would leave at the moment the obi would tightly surround her slim waist.

Yellow was the colour of awareness.

Tsunade's girls were all aware of the risks. In consequence, they all bowed their head to power.

Tenten's hand fell on her laps. They were as dying birds, deprived of freedom. A masked man leaped out of the darkness kneeling before her. Coldness ran through her veins. Her mind protested faintly, she had felt so many eyes. Yet, only two onyx orbs stared back at her.

"Tell Danzo I am wearing a yellow kimono."

Wordlessly, he nodded dropping a bag before leaping back in the shadows. Her hands closed in a jerky manner around the contraceptive herbs. Shadows emptied the forest and the roaring of the wind ceased.

As the kimono weighed heavy on her shoulders, her fist was pressed against her hollow belly. She bent down, dry sobs breaking through her chest. She had never imagined the price of freedom would be so agonizing.

Yellow was the colour of deception.

-X-

The Hyuuga compound had been in perpetual uproar for a week. With a cold expression, the shogun had rejected the elders' arguments, their constant defiant demeanours. They had threatened, he had barely raised a brow before dismissing them. His men were growing restless; blood had filled their mouth at the first war cry. Reports related some disturbances at the border of the shogunate. The youngsters's fingers would itch to draw their katana. Hunger for death governed them.

Neji Hyuuga sat before his council with expressionless features. His cup of tea had turned cold. The council stood as one organic; pinched lips, furrowed brows and unsteady quivering pupils. The shogun's youth had never held the unresolved strength they had expected at Hiaishi's death.

"If you hadn't give Hinata-hime to the South, we could have easily settled this situation with matrimonial ties and avoid this senseless war. Hanabi-sama is still too young to serve our purposes."

'If Uchiha Sasuke had Hinata-sama, you would be lining up behind him against me,' Neji thought bitterly. He had enough of their narrow mind. Every exchanged word reflected the battle between the branches of the clan. They disdainfully refused to be conciliatory. In him, they only saw a branch member who should return to his filthy existence.

"Hinata-hime is safe in the South," he replied icily instead.

An elder huffed giving him a dark look. His neighbor waved his hand bowing slightly his head to Neji. After resistance, they tried compromise. Their repeatable reactions irritated the shogun. His piercing glare turned to the elder as he opened his mouth to speak.

"If I may, Neji-sama, everything is preferable to war. The Emperor's wars have already weakened most of the reputable clans. We are not prepared for the casualties and most lords would think twice before following you."

He heard it loud and clear among his polite façade: 'We will think twice before following you'. He laced his fingers together, his expression as cold as ever. The incident with the Wasabi clan had earned approving nods from the main branch and frightened stares from the branch members. The shogun wished he could have told them the truth. However, a strong cold-hearted shogun was preferable to a weak one who could not do what was best for the clan. Power could never linger long in a weakling's hands.

He simply endured the stares and the whispers.

"Your lordship seems to believe fighting the Uchiha will be easy," another one added crossing his arms before his chest. "The Nara told us, he was already in our territory but he hasn't stepped forward to declare war."

"Indeed, Neji-sama, this useless preparation for war makes us appear weak. Uchiha-sama hasn't confronted us yet. It would be wiser to wait and see."

They all nodded at once.

"Is that what your lordships suggest? That I do not prepare the clan for the inevitable? Should I also bow my head to Sasuke Uchiha as if he were the Emperor once he draws his katana?" He hissed, his pearl glare flickering across their closed postures.

After feigned compromise came chaos. Their voices raised in a tumult.

"We should…" Their voices raised in inaudible and senseless words. The clans only knew the ways of war. They were merely fighting him.

"Of course, this situation wouldn't be as difficult if the line of succession wasn't so unclear."

Inwardly, he flinched. Through the uttered words, he felt the stiffness of Tenten's body against his. Rage filled his veins while his face remained composed. After chaos came the insults. On stiffened limbs, he stood up as etiquette made them bow their heads. He could feel their smirk through the heavy silence.

"I want the inventory of our weapon and food supplies by tomorrow. We are going to war, elders, and this is final. You are dismissed," he articulated every word with sustained rage, his blank stare blazing on the exposed napes of their necks.

When he brusquely erupted from the room, servants made way before him. Disgusted, he looked down at them. Only ants seemed to acknowledge his lordship. Faintly, Neji heard the familiar sound of blades forcefully meeting one another in the courtyard. Instinctively, his hand closed on his katana's pommel. The shogun hurried his pace towards the veranda. The laughter of his men soothed his anger. He felt shadows lining their steps with his.

His head snapped to his left and Shikamaru dark expression smirked at him. Wordlessly, they nodded at one another.

Both men faced the sparing Hyuuga soldiers. The sun faintly gleamed in the light mist. The hush of the trees gave rhythm to the exchanged blows. Side by side, both men thought of their first war under the Emperor's banner.

They both thought of death.

"Have you spoken to her?"

"What?" Neji snapped distractively.

His eyes were following his men's movements. He could feel the call for blood also awakening inside of him.

"The concubine," Shikamaru said slowly. "About the weapon."

The Nara's dark eyes shone with a familiar glint. The concubine had become one more of his puzzles. He snapped back to reality. Again, he felt the remaining traces of her body's rigidity against his. He growled turning sharply towards the stables. Shikamaru's lazy steps followed him as they went away from the sparing fields. The sounds of friendly battle grew fainter and the shogun could only hear his captain's breath as his eyes bore into his back. From afar, the stable boys stood up with frightened eyes. Heavily, his katana was dancing across his hip.

He was a sign of gore and blood.

"I am preparing a war, Shikamaru," Neji answered sternly.

His concubine was meant to be the last thing on his mind. She was a childless pawn.

Roughly, he nodded at the stable team. The men hurried to prepare the shogun's horse. He turned back to his captain before his harsh words died on his tongue. They had shared battlefields, the first cadaver they had to put in its grave. Yet, they had never once talked about women. When the Emperor's conquests were achieved, Shikamaru met Ino and Neji got married. He closed his eyes as the breeze grazed his skin. It carried the scent of blood and unfolding summer.

They would shed blood on blooming flowers.

His horse stamped the ground and he caught its brittle. The bowing men retreated in the stables murmuring among themselves. Their only preoccupations were the horses. Envy spurted inside of him. Plots didn't threaten to hang their resolves. They wouldn't watch their lands sliding beneath bloody mud.

They would simply continue feeding horses.

"You know a Queen can move more freely on the board because she isn't expected to appear in the game."

The shogun paused his feet already in the left stirrup. The elder's words rang harshly in his ear and he could smell her perfume in the air. His skin burned beneath the kunai hidden in his robes.

"She isn't part of the game," he said in a low voice before mounting his black horse.

Shikamaru firmly held onto the bridle. The two young men exchanged a long hardened glance. The shogun saw traces of distraught in the dark circles under his eyes. He saw a man in love unable to sleep at night. His uncle's warnings came back to him. Soldiers were never meant to love. He turned his gaze to the distance, the darkening trees and the ajar doors of the compound.

"Shikamaru, you should forget about Ino. Get married, have kids with a normal looking woman as you have always wanted."

The captain tightened his hold on the bridle and the horse neighed. He shrugged off the last glimpse of her bloodied kimono.

"If they win her over, you will lose the war, Neji."

He let go of the bridle and bowed his head. Neji could feel the gulf of two women between them. Days had passed and his concubine had either been waiting for him or for his enemies. The wild shadow of fear crossed his features and he straightened his back.

"The outline of my strategies will be on your desk by tomorrow, Hyuuga-sama."

He barely heard him as he pushed the beast forward. He didn't care. He had forgotten about her fragility, her femininity. She may have thrown a kunai but she knew nothing of his world. Jackals would eat at her bones before she could let a fake smile to crease her full lips.

Behind him, the sun was setting and Shikamaru's form disappeared in a smoke screen. Tabaco filled his nostrils and he accelerated his pace. He was still too near from his enemies and too far away from her. The compound grew fainter before disappearing altogether.

The road gleamed in silver light. The moon rose above the clouds and he saw the path to the countryside lining up before him. His robes snapped around him. The breath of the night enhanced his uneasiness as it carried the sounds of the night life of nearby villages. He thought of her hatred, her repulsion. He thought of assassins, his enemies.

Neji was bent over his horse.

Speed carried him beyond the elders' resistance and fear of war. Shikamaru's voice burned through his mind. A presentiment made him gritted his teeth. He had left her alone allowing only the servants to bring her water and food. Lee was guarding the door but he couldn't always be awake.

He knew about silent murders, blades ripping through the tatami before piercing one's heart.

Time lapsed and his jaw hadn't unclenched. He saw faint steps as the chant of the wolves followed him. Sweaty, he appeared before the fence. His horse was huffing in the mild sweetness of the air. It smelled of pines and lilies but dust clung at his robes.

The shogun set his feet on the ground and the faint sound of Lee's snore alarmed him. He pushed the doors opened. The mansion gleamed in the moonlight. He frowned at the gaping sliding doors. Slowly, he unsheltered his sword. The metal of her kunai had turned cold against his skin.

As a shadow, he passed by the empty rooms until he reached hers.

A burning lamp cast shadows on the wooden floor and on her face. He slowly blinked. His katana still high, his steps still prowling. A yellow kimono was lying on the floor and she was soundly asleep. Her fist was closed against her cheek. The fire accentuated the simplicity of her features. He sighed leaning on the door frame. His legs still throbbed from his ride and pants heavily left his chest. His half-open tired eyes moved across her neck, her rosy lips. Raw relief crossed his features.

He watched her sleep, as his breath slowed his pulse. Neji turned to sleep in his office as he had done until then. The voice of the elder rang suddenly high in his ear. Instead, he kneeled down, his katana by his side.

The lamp burnt the last of its oil and he quietly closed the sliding doors. Darkness fell in the room and her regular breath was still undisturbed. His blank stare fell on her flat belly.

An icy feeling crept inside of him. He felt the emptiness of their relationship. He wanted to set his plea on her hazed skin and kiss her hatred away.

Hesitantly, he lied down on his back next to her. His fingers rushed up, lightly brushing her elbow. He watched her stirred, discomfort furrowing her thin brows. Neji turned his empty eyes to the ceiling, letting his hand fall back to his side.

He laughed humourlessly in the darkness. He wondered if he could ever hope to graze heaven's skin, if a light touch would ever suffice.

-X-

The Uchiha crest was nagging him, he decided. The paint was still fresh despite time having erased the shredded rivalry between them. Through narrowed lids, he lit his pipe.

Still glaring, Shikamaru sketched his legs resting on the desk. Smoke rose from his pipe and he welcomed the calming sensation that settled in his muscles. Rolls and documents surrounded him and locusts began their buzzing chant. 'Working for the Hyuuga had never been so troublesome,' he thought before falling into a light slumber. He dreamt of the burning crest of the Uchiha, he dreamt of her, clothed in dry blood. He dreamt of her skin and her kiss. The dance of the leaves brought him back to reality a few moments later. His pipe had fallen at his feet, silence had been broken.

Light steps swiftly slid across the slats of the veranda. The sound whispered at his ear her name. Shikamaru still imagined her with blood clinging at her chest and legs, reddening her palms. His hand made its way to rub the sleep of his eyes as she stepped forward.

"I can't go back. I tried but I couldn't."

Black silk clung to her legs and chest like her second skin. Ino slowly kneeled down and Shikamaru followed her movements with his earing. His dark eyes remained closed. 'Ignoring her wasn't the right strategy after all. This troublesome woman is persistent.'

"You haven't shaved in a while, Shika," she whispered in a tired voice.

He sighed slowly putting his feet down onto the floor. The longing in her voice echoed his and he still couldn't ask. His blood boiled at the mention of his name, his clan, the legacy of the first police force. Her beauty only seemed to dim his dull simple face. His name wasn't known throughout the shogunates for his value onto the battlefield, he was from a low clan, he had no legacy. Anger drew his lips in a tight line. He often wondered if she had been laughing at him all along. Couldn't she see her beauty and his laziness? A part of him wanted to roughly open her kimono as the other one wanted to leave her behind, to disappear amid the smoked tobacco and the crowd of the streets.

Couldn't she see him and his aching?

He could bear with the pain of writing reports and strategies. He could not bear her red-shot eyes, her pale skin, the crease on her forehead, her downcast glance.

He couldn't bear the resolution in her voice.

"You shouldn't have come here. You need to go."

Ino flinched. Her rosy lips rounded and he opened his eyes. He quelled a grimace at the weakness in his voice. He had meant to be firm, to turn his head away from her. His eyes searched her instead in the darkness. His men had followed her from one friend's house to another. Emotionless, he had cast aside Tsunade's request to look into Ino's disappearance.

He didn't expect her to come to him. He didn't expect her to leave the pleasure house.

"Do you remember when we first met?" There was a painful softness in her voice. He forced the door opened. He didn't want to remember. He drew back in the shadows of the night and she followed him. She caught his arm, she panted. He noted trails of tears on her pale cheeks, her nervous hands.

"Ino…"

"Are you still running away, Shika, after all this time?" The edge in her voice cut through his impulse and he rested his head on the pillar of the veranda.

The chilly wind of the night engulfed them. It drew in pale colours the warmth of their pants. His hands still imprisoned her wrists. Her scent intoxicated him. It still had too much of his own scent. He closed his eyes as her breath caressed his jawline. She needed to stay.

"Do you still love him?"

Interiorly, he screamed, 'do you love me?' Her nails drew half-moon cuts on his arms. Pain swam in her blue eyes. He followed the waves and he knew. He turned his head away.

"When we first met, you bought information from me. You told me beautiful women were troublesome," her voice rose and broke. "You told me I'd only need to ask and you would free me. I am asking you now, Shikamaru."

From their own accord, his fingers reached up to her porcelain skin. He had waited for an answer, fearing her independence, her anger, her repulsion. He felt cold, calm away from her blue eyes. He avoided her glance concentrating on the nocturnal noises of the city. It was a cacophony of crying children, silent meals and buzzing officers of the law. She reached past them, her lips meeting his for a brief moment. She tasted tobacco while he tasted the crest of the Uchiha clan on the wall of his office.

"You are still thinking of him," the Nara murmured gently pushing her away.

Ino titled her chin up, pride shone through her eyes. He wondered if he could ever walk by her in the street and feel at ease.

"A part of me will always love him but I think of us."

She gave him a small smile uneasily reaching for his hand. He abandoned it to her. His mind trembled to the idea of losing her. His body wanted to lean against hers as he had done so many times. When he first saw her, he knew she was too beautiful to make it simple for him. He knew and he promised her anyway. He pulled her closer murmuring it over and over against her neck. His fingers ran through her blond hair and she pressed her face on his chest.

"There are things, you should know, Shika," her face darkened as the words fell heavily between the proximity of their two bodies. "Sasuke-kun didn't leave alone."

His eyes snapped opened and he tightened his hold on her body. He didn't like the familiarity she voiced at his name. 'The bastard set this trap ages ago and Neji is falling right into it.'

"Who?"

"Sakura Uzumaki."

It was a summer of shared secrets and unfolding conspiracies. Its lightest touch was on the memory of their first encounter.

-X-

He waited, his hand clenching and unclenching on his katana.

The faint smell of tea roused her. Its vapour whirled above his cup thickening the air in the room. Tenten could feel it oppressing her chest. Her breaths were short and raspy in the back of her throat. The birds' chirping seemed too far away. No breeze or sunray caressed her cheek. Her mind still felt the weight of the night in her slumber. Sluggishly, her hazel eyes fluttered open. They widened. She jolted.

In the center of his pillow lay her kunai.

Her senses were still numb with sleep but she felt his eyes on her slow movements, her gaping mouth from which no scream fell. The shogun saw surprise, annoyance and not the slightest bits of fear. He was an element of decoy, a new watchful cold stare.

Shakily, her hand pushed her up. She felt the urge to keep her composure and the contrasting one to reach for her weapon. Loudly, her heart beat against her rib cage deafening her thought. The noises of the night had faded away and the sliding doors were tightly shut. Warily, she turned her head towards the doors and she met his two mesmerizing orbs.

He was back.

She couldn't bow.

Her pulse quickened as he leaned forward cornering her in his disbelief. Shikamaru had been right; he could see her fights in the movements of her body. His dark locks framed his face and the concubine shuddered. She saw death, she saw through the bandana on his forehead. She saw the curse of his name, the spilled blood in hers.

Her hand itched for the weapon but the yellow kimono still lied next to him. Her deception was for him to see. Danzo and China was spelled out for him and he kept staring at her ignoring them.

Menacingly, his eyes shot through her act. He wanted an ally, he wanted her trust but he met only the dark flames of blood thirst in her eyes

"Show me what you can do, Tenten."

Tenten moved, danced, along with the game of deception. She smiled lightly and stepped out of the tangled sheets. She could still feel his warmth, his scent on them. Their previous proximity burned her skin. Goosebumps ran across her arms. After his long absence, the mansion appeared full for a moment. Neji had erased the last traces of the emptiness she felt in its carcass of wood.

"I don't know what Hyuuga-sama means."

Still, she didn't bow.

"Your fighting skills, show me."

Surprise subdued and excitement filled her insides. Her mind reeled between the colour of deception and her freedom. The metallic taste of revenge lied on her tongue. She slowly kneeled before him dropping her glance on her knees. Her mask expressed respect, dignity with a touch of surprise. 'Maybe am I a killer after all.' Her urges seared through her.

"It was Shizune, Hyuuga-sama. I dance, I don't throw weapons," the words fell flatly at her feet.

In a calm gesture, he unsheltered his katana. Her smile quivered faintly and she paled. Her hazel eyes flicked to her hiding kunai beneath the tatami. Her senses were alert now. His serious tone had chased the last remains of sleep. She could taste freedom, she could kill him now.

"I will make you show me then."

Instinct overwhelmed her senses.

His blade glowed, it severed her mask. The sound of metal was like music to her ears. She could easily dance to it. Tenten threw back her head feeling her needles in her mouth with the tip of her tongue. She felt the weight of her kunai in her palm. Her hair fell onto her back and she cocked her head on the side. She had stopped the katana two inches from her face. Slowly, her small tongue darted out and moistened her lips taking in his fighting stance. The call for revenge leisurely blackened her pupils.

The shogun frowned as her features hardened. She had never felt the will to fight so intensively. It resonated through her. The sensation reached her fingers and her hold on her kunai tightened.

"You shouldn't attack someone this early in the morning, Hyuuga-sama," she said sweetly.

With her free hand, she untied her belt of silk. Her darkening orbs shone with amusement as she watched him averted his eyes. Her sleeping robes opened revealing her bound chest, her black pants. The shogun blinked as she leaned forward reaching for her two remaining kunai beneath the tatami. Neji inhaled sharply. 'Have I been so blind?' A concubine had died before his eyes and a fighter was born.

"Very well, then, Hyuuga-sama," a smirk played on her lips and she effortlessly pushed away his katana. "I will show you but I hope that you are fast because I may accidently kill you."

'And I may not even care if I do so,' she added inwardly.

The first kunai cut through his pride.

Thrown with the lightest touch of her palm, the second aimed at his heart.

-X-

**Next chapter, Sasuke and Sakura will finally appear. As for now, please review. It sounds silly but they do make me write and update faster. ;)**


	7. Croaking Ravens

**A/N: This is probably the chapter I had the most fun writing. :) I hope you enjoy! Happy Easter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

-X-

**Croaking Ravens  
**_By Clementive_

_**Four days earlier**_

The messenger cursed under his breath. He hated the humidity of the eastern coast of Japan, clouds always hung heavily in the sky until pouring down. He crossed the shogunate of the mist in four days the scent of his horse's wet cloak unpleasantly thick around him. He missed the dry sand of the south, the even temperature of the Konoha. He wrinkled his nose in disgust; his surroundings seemed overly green, glinting with drops of rain. His skin felt cold and humid no matter the creaking sound of fire of the inns he stayed overnight.

The hoofs of his horse splashed water on the side of the road. The curtain of rain imprisoned him once more and he sighed angrily tightening his hold on his cloak. 'Will it ever stop to bloody rain?' The messenger shivered as cold rain ran down his neck. Suddenly, his horse broke into an agitated pace. Cursing loudly, he clenched his teeth pulling on the reins. Voicing its protest, the animal whined before stopping altogether near the first trees of the edge of the forest. He hissed narrowing his eyes. There was a drawing carefully carved in the tree before him.

Wide-eyed, he stared at the raven and its open mouth deeply wounding the tree. The symbol of death. 'I need to get out of here.' Briskly, he pulled the reins to turn around then he saw a masked man before him. He didn't have the time to reach for his sword or to duck.

A raven croaked, a bow sang. The corpse of the messenger fell. The bow sang again. The horse tumbled loudly crushing its dead rider.

He lowered the bow slowly approaching the two corpses. With a thud of the foot, the masked man opened the saddle-bag. A fake smile curved his lips upward as he caught a glimpse at his drawing engraved on the tree. He leaned forward the dead messenger gaping in frozen surprise at him.

His fists closed against the Uchiha scroll he had been carrying towards the shogunate of the Uzumaki clan. The dead wouldn't need it anymore.

"Good work, Sai," a rich voice praised behind him.

He turned his fake smile toward the man behind him. 'Should I name this piece 'Croaking Raven'?"

"Thank you, Danzo-sama."

-X-

_**Present days**_

Her kunai slid against his blade drawing small sparks along it. It whistled brushing past his ear as her foot reached up to hit him in his abdomen. His back against the pillar of his ravaged office, careful short breathes escaping his chest, he grabbed her ankle. Closer, farther away.

She danced away, he fought back his eyes never leaving her.

"Where did you learn that?" he breathed out stoically.

She chose to preserve the silence of the fight. She could feel them, the ghosts, oppressing her chest leading her blows. They guarded the uselessness of her quest, the bitter taste of revenge. They were the ravens perched on her soul whispering of death, breathing from it.

Neji Hyuuga recognized the fighting style in a matter of seconds. He pestered himself; he should have seen it in her haze yellowish skin, in her curve of her mouth or the shape of her eyes. He figured she had blinded him with her graceful movements. She snaked through his blows just as she had slipped through his embrace. Tenten had the grace of a dancer grace and attacked vehemently with the Chinese movements she remembered. She matched his weapon skill with ease with the glint of her eyes which have become familiar to him. In the silence of their fight, he heard loud and clear her kunai spitting revenge as drops of blood on his skin.

Her savagery fascinated him.

She didn't flinch at the bites of his blade instead using it as leverage to land her own cut on his skin. She wasn't a weak pawn after all. He smirked dodging her short blades. He still couldn't decide which shogi piece she was.

Their fight ran wild through the halls, weapons whipping through the thin screens. They felt the thrill of the chase, the excitement of clashing blades. They drank from the other's thirst. The Chinese woman took a ravenous pleasure in marking the walls, ripping the screens. Her house had been felt as full as it did at that moment- destroyed, rasped breaths echoing within its structures. She kept moving, he kept pushing her back. They moved on each other until they felt the ground beneath their feet, the hidden sun above their heads.

The bird cage swung in a screeching sound, a kunai embedded in its center.

The wild wind pursued its furious path, inching the sliding doors forward. It rose, knocking on the walls within the mansion, breeding ghostly creaking steps on the wooden floor. A thick cloak of clouds veiling the sun beams. The trees hushed in the darkness, their pants rising higher with each exchanged blow. Tenten gripped her last kunai, twisting it nervously; she could feel the end. Her forehead creased in concentration. She almost missed the comfort of vaporous silk as she moved, her hair dancing across her neck and shoulder. She wondered if they had watched her other fights, her other dances.

They faced each other in the hovering thunder. Her face and nature were at war.

"This is enough, Tenten. There is nothing left for you to destroy." He coldly stated without lowering his guard.

He couldn't trust her hatred and his fading surprise. Yet the shogun was too stubborn to admit her strength. Few of his kinsmen could twist as expertly with a weapon and even fewer could toss them with great ease. 'Where did she learn that?' He mused watching her empty eyes, her pained mask.

Shaking her head, she wiped the sweat from her brows. 'There is still my guilt, my anger, my tiredness. They are still there, I can't stop now.'

Neji remembered the feasts he took over his own will for revenge. He remembered his cousin soaked in blood, the stillness in the elders' pupils as he won for the first time against the main branch of the clan. A searing burn inflamed his forehead then. He saw revenge's familiar patterns; the broken Chinese nation in her movements, the dead bodies she carried within her soul. His understanding tore his throat but her hazel glinted unpleasantly ignoring her painful muscles, her stiff limbs. Her strength did not diminish with the cuts on her arms.

"No. You asked for it, Hyuuga-sama," she mumbled through clenched teeth.

_There!_ Neji winced as her kunai dangerously cut the fabric of his clothes near his rib cage. Twisting on her side, her feet kicked the pommel of his blade. After an arc gleaming trajectory, it quivered, hammered in the tender earth. She watched as ferocious pride devoured the last remains of humanity on his face. 'She definitely isn't a pawn. Perhaps a lower knight?'

"I will have to stop you then."

Her smirk slid off her lips, as he took the Hyuuga fighting stance. Dread settled his claw in her insides taking a step back in a defensive stance. His eyebrows barely shot up. 'Her reaction…She must have seen the Hyuuga's techniques.'

"I won't let you!" She snarled rushing forward, her features quivering with sustained rage. She was past the point of stopping. She didn't want to lay down her weapons and return to bowing before him.

Narrowing her eyes, she inhaled sharply sneaking her way through his insistent attacks. She let out a feeble yelp clenching her teeth. Her mix style didn't adhere to his new foot work, to the danger of his palms. Suddenly, they collided, his left hand forcibly pressing down her shoulder. The concubine merely clenched her teeth as her arm fell limply at her side, dangling. She willed her fingers to tighten their grip on her kunai, but it thudded on the ground along with the first drops of rain. An agonizing pain ran through her useless limb. The sensation stopped altogether and she couldn't feel it anymore. She shuddered at the prospect of emptiness swinging by her side.

The warlord charged at her again.

Tenten avoided the danger of his palm slightly tumbling on the handle of her last kunai at her feet. Her hand held her arm against her right side as she panted heavily. Dizziness forced her on one knee and only a half veil hazel pupil stared up at him.

The young woman expected disdain spread across his face not blatant calmness.

He sat on his heels whispering her name. The young woman looked at him straight in his eyes startling him as he pressed his palm to her chest, beneath her heart. Her breath hitched in her throat but she kept watching him. They understood one another, they both knew, a light push and she would die.

"Most men close their eyes when facing death," the shogun muttered searching her flushed face for a sign that he was accustomed to.

"That's merely because men aren't women, Hyuuga-sama," the concubine replied smirking as she leaned forward.

She dared him with her eyes. He remained still gulping. 'That woman…'

Cold hazel met softening pearl. Rain snaked on her worn out muscles and she thought of death. Neji drank the sight of her darkening tresses under the rain, of her stubbornness, of their ravaged home. He thought of her savage beauty. Instead, his palm moved upwards, cupping her face. Again, her breath hitched in her throat.

"You and I aren't very different, _Tiantian_. Can't you see it?"

She flinched turning her head aside so that she would escape his thumb grazing her cheeks. She simply couldn't see it, for now, as his hands caressed her skin as his voice wavered on the Chinese pronunciation of her name. Sighing, he moved his hand to rest it on her shoulder. She willed him not to hear the hammering of her heart, the silent shrills of her painful muscles.

"I will not kill you, just as you cannot kill me. You should let the past rests in its graves. I won't apologize for what was done in China by my clan. That was over twelve years ago." The young lord titled her head upwards forcing her to look at him once more. "The truth is: you aren't made of darkness so your resolve is weak."

It stung more than his blows, than her old scars. Tenten fought back angry tears feeling the weight of soaked fabric on her legs. _Weak_. Were they gone, ashamed of her surrender of the weakness of her blades, of her heart? Was this their legacy?

"Just so you know…You didn't win, Hyuuga-sama."

He merely replied with a smirk. He knew. His fingers awkwardly pushed her injured shoulder up. Shutting her eyes, Tenten hissed biting down her tongue as she felt the blood flow back to her right arm. Relief washed through her and he rose to his feet his robes plastered on his torso.

"Neji."

She gazed up questionably as her knees lightly sank in the mud gathered at her thighs. The wind kept howling around her. Her heaving chest loosened her bandages around her chest. Faintly, she heard his answer as he unhurriedly made his way to the mansion. 'A queen… hn. No, not yet. But soon, very soon…'

"Starting now, call me Neji."

Their memory abruptly stopped repressing her breaths, her movement.

A dry chuckle escaped her and she gazed up at the darkened sky letting droplets of rain washed away the tensions. When was the last time she had laughed? She couldn't even remember, it sounded unusual. Was this peace; the disappearance of weapons, her exposed weakness to take one's life? Eyes closed, she heard him gathering the blades and carefully shutting the doors.

The irony of the situation befell her; Tenten owned her life to the shogun. She heard the sound of water loud and clear, rain slipping in through the torn screens and the gaping ones. She smelled the damp earth, the quivering trees. A perpetual cycle. Gone was the weight on her chest. Water washed it away, bit by bit; her mask curling in liquid tendrils at her knees. She quietly wondered how she could breathe so evenly when she was now his war prisoner without any weapon left.

Like the ghosts they were, her family faded in the back of her mind. 'Let them rest in their graves, Hyuuga? Is this really that simple?'

Slowly, she stood up on weak limbs a dark raven watching her every move from the tallest tree.

Its croaks wavered through the wind as the first sound of thunder severed the celestial peace.

She was finally Tenten and she was a fighter.

-X-

She knew he would be mad if he happened to open the doors and see her kneeling form. Nervously, she gnawed her inner cheek. Light rain made its way on the polished tiles of the roof echoing by its soft sound the deafening poundings of her heart. The voices were hushed but slipped out of the joined the doors to reach her ears.

"_The Uzumaki clan hasn't answered my message yet."_

Sakura Uzumaki closed her eyes, her palm pressed against the delicate patterns of the screens. Uneasiness twisted within her and she quivered ever so slightly the wooden floor hard beneath her knees. Naruto never gave up, he had always acted up to her expectations and she hadn't. She couldn't wear his clan heraldry on her robes, she preferred the barest kimonos. She was a wife without a name. Her long pink hair cascaded framing her delicate features as she rested her cool forehead against the wood above where her palm remained. She was a lover without love.

She heard the faint rustles of silk, her mother's movement to lean closer certainly. With ease, she could picture the frown on her mother's face, the violent coldness on Sasuke's one. The days of a blooming summer passed and coldness lingered in his eyes whenever he looked at her. He had always thought her name would be enough and she had always thought her love would be enough.

"_Without the Uzumaki warriors, only your clan will march with me. Hyuuga didn't lose one second to tighten his ties with the other clans of the valley. At least five of them will fight with him while the others will remain neutral."_

The pink haired woman heard the accusation in his voice; she had been a useless pawn in his hand after all. He had known she would follow him but he didn't expect the war against his brother to soil the ground with Uchiha blood for three years. Sakura chose war over peace, him over her husband.

"_There's also no guarantee that Sakura can be used," Sasuke muttered darkly. "If you could handle your women better than this we wouldn't be in that situation."_

Her heart fluttered in her chest. Wherever she turned, she thought of haunting accusatory blue eyes. Her absence delayed the outburst, the excessive rage of being the one left behind. She hoped it wouldn't sting as jealousy if they were to face one another. She knew she could ride the flames of anger but their friendship would drown in the waves of jealousy. 'Ino…'

"_Don't worry about Ino, when my clansmen find her she will be killed. It shouldn't take long besides. That foolish girl is certainly with her lover."_

Humidity hung on her clothes and she felt them weighing her down. She couldn't move with the jagged icy feeling wrapped around her. It cut deeper than Sasuke's loveless eyes and Tsunade's new bitterness. The sky tore opened and water poured down. A sad smile curved her pink lips. 'So you are over Sasuke-kun, pig? I'm glad…' She bit her lower lip, dread unclenching in the pits of her stomach. They spent their childhood running beneath the Sakura trees in the courtyard. Workers would pester at them and they would only laugh in response. Then, they became women of beauty and they fought for the same man, Sasuke Uchiha. Her victory tasted bitter now.

"_Try not to make the same mess as when you killed the young Hyuuga."_

"_We had no choice, he knew too much. He shouldn't have been meddling into our affairs."_

Their conversation ceased as she heard the doors slide opened and a servant's soft mutter. The sound of a pouring liquid reached her and she faintly smelled jasmine. She imagined the tea's hotness wriggling between their hunched bodies. The doors closed and the silence lingered. They didn't touch their cup of tea, conspirators always become overly suspicious. Death was their only enemy.

"_I'm afraid, Uchiha-sama that you will have to feign the support of the Uzumaki clan. If you don't request an audience with Hyuuga-sama soon, everything we have done will be gone to waste," Tsunade's voice snapped._

Silence settled between them and Sakura's pulse quickened. Again, she could see how much things have changed since she left. Her room was in the same order but her mother's eyes held fear that even her presence couldn't hush away. The girls were now younger in the estate, the girls she had grown up with being gone. In three years, her guilt never dulled, it was a weight for the world to see. It darkened her emerald eyes drawing shadows on her porcelain skin. Her laughter grew thinner but she still loved him. She still didn't feel the regrets she expected to feel. Her treason lay by others and not within her. War and blood had simply made her wary of happiness and emotions.

She had lost her delicacy of her complexion.

"_I guess we will have to you them after all. How trustworthy is the concubine?"_

"_Not enough for her to handle this on her own but she could be useful. If you need money to pay for their services, we could arrange for Hyuuga-sama to pay for it through her."_

Sakura could hear the smirk in Sasuke's silence. Shivering, her hand fell back at her side. She left for her urge to feel needed. When they called one another 'brother', they protected her never quirking a brow. When they drifted apart, Sakura didn't have enough strength to keep them together. Sasuke's heart was filled with revenge and hatred and Naruto kept smiling even on the battlefield. Sasuke said he needed her while Naruto said he loved her.

"_I will contact them. I will take Sakura with me to meet the Hyuuga lord. If she can at least serve as the representative of the Uzumaki's support, nothing would have been in vain."_

She flinched at the coldness creeping in his voice.

"_It's as you see fit. Do you want me to…?"_

"_No," he cut her off. "I will personally handle them. I wouldn't want the Akatsuki to turn on me as they did with Itachi. One mistake and they will have my head. We will also need a price, something they terribly want. Money is never enough for mercenaries."_

"_You should let me take care of that, Uchiha-sama. I know exactly who they would want." _

'Will you ever forgive me, Naruto? Is that why you won't come for me?' She thought as the sky kept shedding the tears she held inside.

-X-

He flinched at the outburst, his hand still on the doors. 'That woman is still here?'

Kiba Inuzuka grunted in displeasure as he opened and closed the doors behind him. His captain's office glowed in dim light but he could make out the mess of papers. An uneven pile of scrolls almost hid the sight of his desk. He narrowed his eyes stepping forward clearing his throat. Sit on the floor, his captain kept arguing with a light blonde haired woman a shogi board settled between them. He rolled his eyes his heart skipping a bit at the signs of them playing chest, her narrowed cerulean eyes and Shikamaru's feigned calmness. He still couldn't quite understand them. They seemed too different, her and her beauty and him and his laziness.

"Why would I leave? I'm not scared of what Tsunade-sama can do," Ino huffed dramatically pushing her hair back.

Smoke escaped his mouth and nostrils and he lazily looked up at her. They barely acknowledged his presence as Inuzuka grunted once more. Their couple was a living contrast that refused to apply to the equal comprehension of one another. Whenever, Ino raised her voice, Shikamaru would drop his. They also spoke only to complete one another's silence.

"Troublesome woman, if what you told me is right, do you think they won't try to kill you?"

The hint of concern in his voice made Kiba uneasy. It resembled his in too many points. Roughly, she picked up a piece from the board and threw it next to her with her other caught pieces. His pulse quickening, he watched his captain's serious dark orbs fixed on her beautiful face. The violence of her movements quietened slightly and Shikamaru's shoulders hunched in response.

"I don't want to leave Konoha," she replied crossing her arms over her chest in a childish manner.

"You have to. My mother is already waiting for you."

The loudmouthed woman pinched her lips together. She met his even stare, his silver smoking pipe dangling between his lips. Across the room, Kiba sighed heavily watching the color red spread on her cheeks and neck. Despite their apparent unorthodox ways, they always reached an understanding beyond any of their uttered words.

"This is the least romantic proposal!" She shrieked throwing a pawn at him.

A smile rose to his lips as he twisted the knight she had thrown at him between his fingers. 'Well, that's the least romantic answer, troublesome woman.' She stormed out of the room pushing past Kiba. He gulped nervous at the floral smell he caught on her. Intimidating and beautiful. He shook his head willing his mind to stay off the image of Ino Yamanaka under his superior's presence. 'Dogs don't share their mate,' he inwardly chastised his overwhelmed instincts. At this point, he could only wish his friend and superior wouldn't notice his lingering stare on Ino's body or the way he paused whenever she looked at him. The sliding doors slammed shut and he closed his eyes pushing back her haunting deep eyes. Oblivious, the Nara man picked up the other shogi pieces off the tatami.

"I guess that's a yes," his lieutenant said dryly willing it to sound smooth and uncaring.

His words landed awkwardly between the two men to his ears but Shikamaru smirked staring up at him. In unison, they both winced when another door slammed shut in the distance. Most women hid their emotions behind a delicate mask of femininity. Ino Yamanaka had never felt the urge to do so. He chuckled softly at her deafening roaring and the servant's meek replies.

"Some women are worth the trouble…Or so it seems."

He cocked his head on the side pointing to the empty spot before him. Reluctantly, Kiba sat down on the cushion with his legs crossed. He hated that game of strategy just as much as he hated the indirect fight of warlords.

"How is your wound?" Nara said lazily tossing the pieces across the board.

"Fine, I'm ready to come back into action." Kiba said firmly holding the unflinching stare of his captain.

He forced a wolfish grin on his lips. His abdomen still hurt him whenever he moved around too quickly but doing nothing wasn't in his character. He liked the thrill of the chase and that never happened when one was lying down. Beside, his household was nagging him with his recklessness as they stopped to pat Akamaru's head. They were still treating him like the impulsive child he had been. His days as a warlord seemed too far away. It made his blood boil in impatience whenever he saw citizens dropped to their knees when Neji Hyuuga rode past them.

"Hn," he set his elbow on his knee his palm supporting his head as he fought back a deliberate yawn. "The situation is troublesome. The woman you saw with Sasuke is most likely to be Sakura Uzumaki according to Ino."

"That idiot's wife!" He gaped at his superior as he merely nodded in return still concentrated on the chess board.

"I'm inclined to send you to Naruto but your personalities are too troublesome to peacefully blend in."

He sighed heavily, his fingers slowly scratching his shaved cheek. With a bored expression, he drew smoke in his lungs before letting it pour out of his mouth. The Inuzuka's face was flushed with embarrassment as he recalled the verbal fencing, the blonde's recklessness and his perpetual annoyance he felt whenever they were together. They were too loud, too reckless to agree over the simplest point.

"Shino Aburame is already on the field doing something for me. Lee is guarding the concubine. Chouji is now the Akimichi warlord so he's working on uniting the other clans instead. That leaves…"

The board was empty between them.

"No one," he admitted flatly.

"It seems things have changed a lot in three years," Kiba boasted grinning savagely. "Is the situation so bad that Shikamaru Nara is now unable of designing a strategy to save us all?"

His dark head snapped up and he glared with undaunted orbs at his lieutenant. He was too old in this world to count the people he couldn't save on his fingers. He took his pipe out of his mouth refilling with tobacco to avoid the adamant gaze of his subordinate. Narrowed impatient eyes followed his movements.

"The best strategy right now is to wait and see, Kiba." He explained in a careful voice. "That Sakura is like the unstable earth beneath our feet. We never know if it's going to destroy everything in its path or if it would merely shake throughout our lifetime. She's troublesome and we can't know for sure on whose side she is."

"And who's going to tell that to the prissy Hyuuga?" He asked in a suspicious voice.

"Experience," the Nara stated dully concentrating on lighting his pipe.

Taken back, he quirked a brow as Shikamaru closed his eyes his palm now resting on the empty wooden board. He welcomed the taste of dry leaves rolling on his tongue, in his throat.

"And a subordinate," he added tobacco smoke veiling his lazy smirk.

-X-

**A/N: Thank you for reading! :) **

**For those who are wondering: I do not intend to write or elaborate on the love triangle ShikaInoKiba. It's just that I can't think of a Kiba pairing to ease my mind at the prospect of letting him end up alone. I mean if he can't touch, he may as well look, ne?**

**Review? :)**


	8. Dance of Shadows

**I am soooo sorry, guys. I wanted to update but school kept me really busy and well the end of the session was a living nightmare. Now, I have only exams left and then I will as free as the wind writing probably two chapters a week. In brief, thank you for your patience. No, I never had the intention of abandoning this story. **

**As for now, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

-X-

**Dance of Shadows  
**_by Clementive_

The flames at his side crackled heating the air of dawn. Servants had displayed the charcoal braziers on the veranda beside him before waiting quietly in the darkness for their master's winkled hand to dismiss them. Instead, his guttural voice sent them for tea. Moments later, fingers stiffened by the cold poured his tea in a ceramic cup. Leisurely, the infusion's steam whirled, crystalizing the thick air of the city. Siting on the veranda, Danzo shivered slightly in the hour of darkness, the solemn hour before the sun's appearance on the horizon.

He waited for the color.

Danzo liked the blood colored skies of the beginning of summer. It carried the scent of the battlefield, of allies and enemies tearing one another apart for an acre of more land. The rules of power were then painted beyond their barbarous pawns. In such light, the path to power was distinctive by its shadowy movements. In a parallel path, lied the power of an unified Japan. The Emperor was a mere symbol, he found him distasteful in its self-inducted imprisonment in his golden palace of concubines. Danzo preferred vassals in armors bowing their heads to him and wars shaping the repartition of power in the shogunate.

The Uchiha's upraise had delayed his plan but now everything was in place once more for the final blow that would make him the next shogun. Tsunade's daughter had been a useful pawn, eliciting her mother's anger. At the last moment, she will cut Sasuke Uchiha down. The old man would watch as the Uchiha shogunate would fall under his realm. He smirked tightening his hold on the fur blanket around his shoulder. Then, it would be the turn of the Hyuuga clan and their barbarous ways.

They would fall one another the other; the Mist and the already diminished Uzumaki clan, the Leaf and the branch member child who would set his own clan aflame at the appropriate moment. Then there was the woman and her silver blood. He furrowed his brows thinking back at the report he got from Sai concerning her. He decided that for now he could let Tsunade used her to her discretion but the situation would require tact to retain his hold on her and her skills. He could not let Akatsuki have her. After all those years searching for her, he could not lose her.

The blood rose from the mountain along with the sun. It spread on the welkin erasing the cold luminosity of the stars and brought the new day and the promise of the warlords' downfalls. He grabbed his cane still smirking coldly at the outline of his machination.

It was the hour of the gathering. In perfect silence, his masked men kneeled behind him in order of strength just as he had taught them so carefully over the years. He enjoyed the silence of his household and the iron grip he kept on their lives.

Summer was the time of silk and machination.

His mind lingered a bit on her flickered golden eyes, the blind queen on his shogi board, as he brought once again his cup of tea to his lips. He had carefully set the base of his ascent, now was the time to let his pawns play against one another carefully arranging their mischiefs and dreams so they will meet at the appropriate time. Too concentrated on their own will for revenge, on their own hatred, they always failed to notice him, their puppeteer.

So he watched the game of power unfold before his eyes while sipping his hot tea in the cool breeze of a blooming summer.

"Sai, I would like you to do one more thing for me," he said to the darkness enclosing behind him.

Power was a dance of shadows and Danzo was its master.

-X-

The moon drew her body as a dancing shadow before his eyes. Leaning against the door frame of the veranda, he watched silvery light fall down onto her flying limbs, slipping through her twisting hips. Her fans snapped shut next to her head before being caught again in her hands. Her hair was an auburn cascade swinging across her silhouette for the slight moment when her feet met the damp earth. The elongated shadows from the tall trees captured her frame and then gave her back to his pearl stare.

Neji watched for an hour as she danced.

Tenten seemed to swim, fly, her movements part of an untouched grace. Her dance of shadows had nothing to do with the neutral exaggerated long pause of the traditional dances women in his clan practiced. He remembered her as the masked dancer at his cousin wedding. She was made of darkness, her soul perched on her shoulder as her fans followed her slow precise movements, her disarranged skirts. He leaned forward when her skin glowed in the night; it was part of her last dance, her last act under the stars she had come to trust.

When she finished, her body folded under the moonlight like a bird closing his wigs. Her back to him, he watched her slender neck roll as she looked up at the welkin. By the set of her shoulders, he knew she sensed him approaching her. He closed his tired eyes, his hand grazing her kimono. He wanted her body to be supple again in the sky. He could still see anger, pain and sorrow in her hazel eyes, in the disinterest she showed about the empty place in their futon. Anger rose in his throat but the breeze rose again and all he could feel was his weakness at the sight of her neck.

"Is there any chance you would give me back my weapons?" Tenten asked in a calm tone breaking the silence that had settled between them.

His proximity revealed her bare feet on the earth, the light ample robe she wore. Without quite touching her, he closed the remaining distance between their bodies distractively watching her back contract. Chasing rumbling thoughts about her neck, he thought distastefully about a poet Hinata liked that blamed foolish behavior on the place of the moon in the night sky.

"Is there any chance you would look at me as anything else than a member of the Hyuuga clan?" He answered in a blank voice.

He was surprised by the need he heard in his words. Stepping away from him, she turned lightly around on her foot. Her arm suddenly left her side and she was pointing at the sky. He stopped noticing the moon, he looked at her dark silhouette away from him and he thought bitterly that this distance would always subside. Time may dull the hatred in her but her indifference would remain, light on her feet as she would step away from him. Again and again.

"Do you see this star? It means a war is coming. It will be savage and many will die. The arrangement on this constellation means that the outcome isn't clear yet. The balance of power is still unsure, it seems."

"Stars can't tell the outcome of anything, Tenten," the warlord answered softly the taste of destiny still vivid on his tongue.

Her arm fell back at her side. She turned hollow dark eyes towards him. In them, he saw the familiar dance of death, the ache and weight of destiny.

"This is what I told my father when he pointed at this star 11 years ago, right before your clan destroyed my village."

-X-

Moments later, she swam in the sun's blood glint, the back of her hand pressed against her moist forehead. Above her lying form, particles of dust hanged mid-air glittering faintly. Tenten frowned pursuing her lips as she still felt him and his pearl eyes on her.

"If you give them back, I won't run away," she vowed clenching the fist at her side.

Their absence in her robes were too raw to ignore, too heavy for her to ignore. Couldn't he sense her uneasiness, her exposure? Bitterly, she thought that perhaps that was what he wanted; to belittle her.

"You should get some sleep," he answered closing his eyes as he regained his meditation pose. "Anyhow, your babblings over those weapons would guide me right to you if you were to ever attempt to run away."

"I feel uncomfortable without them," the young woman added softly propping herself up on one elbow.

Slowly, a smirk crept on his lips. She could see tiredness mercilessly digging the corner of his eyes and in his cheeks. She shivered inwardly at the prospect of him reading her mind. She had expected sleep to claim him so she could take her weapons back. Instead, he had remained the shadow of her night dismissing every one of her attempts with amusement then with frustration.

"And I feel more comfortable with them on me."

Letting out a small scream of frustration, she fell back on her back, her arms sketched out. He had called her resolve weak, he knew she couldn't kill him like an assassin would. Staring hard at the ceiling, she thought of her years at the pleasure house. The relations of power and submission embedded all of their lives. The art of beauty and pleasure were webbed in tight knots. Submission needed to be feigned in order to obtain something. Pouting with glistening lips, she turned her head towards his sitting form. His hair was free around his shoulders. Only his broad jaw and his masculine body could distinguish him from a woman. Her smirk froze when she noticed the black head band still on his forehead. Quickly, she averted her eyes. She remembered the story one of the girls narrated once about a branch member of the Hyuuga clan. Then, her mind reeled over the marked foreheads of the corpses she had seen carried by the Chinese sea.

"What is it that you want, Hyuuga-sama?"

"Neji," he insisted his eyes still closed.

"Neji-chan, what is it that you want?" She asked again articulating insolently on the diminishing suffix.

In response, he snapped an eye open glaring daggers at her. Her controlled laughter wrinkled the corner of her eyes and curved her full lips. Unaffected by his cold anger, she turned her stare back to the ceiling. The caress of the sun was now light orange and warm on her cheeks.

"I want you to be my ally."

Spasms of laughter shook her body as she rejected his demand with a wave of the hand. They were too different. A sea of body still divided them. She closed her eyes when it finally ceased. Cold orbs and frozen features sculpted his pale complexion with a dangerous glow but she paid him no mind. A shogun was really disobeyed but the absence of her weapon made her reckless and light-headed.

"Oh, Hyuuga-sama, you have no idea whom you are up against. With or without me, they will destroy you. Why do you think they chose me? I will never bear a Hyuuga heir and they will replace you with whomever they see fit."

"Who's this "they"?"

She closed her eyes a rancorous smile on her lips. Unlike the stars, she thought that the outcome was clear at this point. A man who couldn't name his enemies was a man unaware of the prowling shadows and their dance.

He repeated his question twice but only silence answered him. Before drifting to sleep, she hoped he could at least hear the shadows moving in the forest surrounding the mansion.

They were coming.

-X-

Swaddled in heavy and warm garments, they arrived at the mansion during the early hours of the day. A faint mist still hung on the fresh grass and Rock Lee and Shikamaru Nara ushered their horses in the rustic stable. Their breaths drew pale small clouds around their mouth. Wrapped in her cape of fur, Ino Yamanaka watched the men's lips moved along inaudible words.

She rolled her eyes shifting her clear blue glance at the mansion before her. She shivered from both the cool air and excitement. Tenten's mansion was made of lacquered black wood. The roof curved highly at each order despite the fact that it was only one story high. Flying cranes and waves were painted carefully on its wide sliding doors.

Gulping, she felt her heart fluttered in her chest. Once, she had had hoped to obtain such a house with her beauty. She had thought that men would remember her face as clearly as her name. Laughing quietly, she shook her golden curls in the wind. Ino could feel the emptiness and the loneliness breaking away from the wooden structure like dead skin. The humid air smelled of decayed flowers. A sad smile curved her lips; she had been silly and young. Her heart leaped at the prospect of leaving Konoha but not at the Nara modest status. Through pale eyelashes, she watched her future husband still discussing quietly with a strange man with thick eyebrows.

Her steps broke the water pearls on the grass that the dew had left behind as she approached the two men. Black orbs looked up at her and red spread across the man's pale skin. Inwardly, Ino smirked. She had always enjoyed the effect she had on men. Shikamaru's lieutenant nervousness made her laughed and reassured her. She had still some power left despite the downfall of her clan when she was little. The only inheritance she had from them was her beauty she held from her mother. As long as she was beautiful, she could still use her name.

"You shouldn't let your beautiful flower see Hyuuga-sama. I think he is still upset. I was taking a youthful nap when he arrived so I told him I had to do 500 laps around the mansion to make amends for it but he told me to stay still," Lee whined drawing a sigh from Shikamaru.

Ino couldn't help but shiver at the prospect of feeling the shogun's cold unflinching white eyes on her. The other girls had often whispered about the strangeness of the Hyuuga eyes. It was said that they could see beyond lies. She had never met them but Tenten had danced several times for Hiaishi Hyuuga and then for his eldest daughter at her wedding.

"Lee, I still need to talk with him. Where are the servants going?"

Abruptly, she turned around frowning at the sight of two young women with the disgraceful features of lower class chatting animatedly. They had leaped out from the mansion by a side-door and their hurried steps already brought them to a hill and the beginning of the road crisped with ice.

"Hyuuga-sama told them to drop the food for the day at dawn and leave immediately. He thinks that one of those hard-working women may try to kill his concubine," the soldier whispered glancing warily at Ino's outraged face.

Fighting back her urge to shout at the idea of her friend always alone with no servant, she merely raised a thin pale brow at Shikamaru. His dark eyes met hers briefly before turning back his attention towards the black-haired soldier. Her cheeks were flushed with the cold and frustration. He knew that she could get troublesome from now on.

"Well, then send back for them! We _will_ need them today," she said in an imperious voice.

She smirked proudly at the captain as the soldier saluted her and hurried down the hill after the two young women.

"Troublesome woman," the captain murmured approaching her.

His hand found on the small of her back as he gently pushed her towards the bamboo gates. As a wedding present, he had expected her to ask for expensive jewelry or kimono. He certainly didn't expect her to ask him to bring her here. He smiled down at her as she slipped her hand through his. 'This woman never fails to surprise me.' Together, they walked on the stone path to the veranda. She frowned and her lips twisted in a grimace as she caught a glimpse of the dying plants in the garden.

"She hasn't changed one bit and she calls herself a woman! Have you seen this, Shika! How could a woman let a garden fall into such derision? You know I should stay here for a bit and…"

"No, Ino," the words now came easily to his lips. He watched her face darkened as they advanced in silence towards the sliding doors of the front of the mansion.

His hand on her tiny elbow he stopped her from taking off her sandals. His other hand turned her face towards his.

"I'm already doing something that I think is careless. You will see your friend, as I promised you. I will give Hyuuga-sama the battle plans I made and then we will ride off. We can't linger long here, Ino, the Senju clan is after you."

Reluctantly, she nodded putting her hand on his. Before she could add something, the doors roughly slid open before them. In the shadows, a blade reflected the emerging sun. Pale like a corpse, the blonde haired woman brushed away Shikamaru's hand off her. Icy widened pearl eyes ran over them. The shogun had pleasant features but the rough authority of his title imprinted in the harshness of them. The rough fabric of his beige attire contrasted violently with the silk of his ceremonial robes he usually wore.

"What in the world are you doing here, Nara?" The shogun asked icily putting back his katana in the sheath at his hip.

They dropped to their knees in slow motion as his lips became a thin pale line at the sight of the blond woman. She felt her heartbeat accelerate as her forehead touched the bitter cold wood of the veranda. Next to hers, her lover's body tensed and she heard him say his favorite idiom under his breath.

"Explain yourself, Nara."

Shikamaru's large ceremonial pants brushed against her arm when he sat up. She felt excluded from their world of power and honor. Tremors broke her stance; her childhood memories were too far to reassure her. The Yamanaka clan was broken by illness before she was born.

"I have the plans you asked for, Hyuuga-sama, and, well, as troublesome as it sounds this is her wedding gift."

She closed her eyes in her uncomfortable position sensing the atmosphere charged with animosity. Recognition washed over him as the shogun without having seen her once in his life understood who she was. The two men exchanged a hard stare.

"I thought you were a smart man, Nara."

The words stung and she bit her lip to keep herself from shrieking. She wondered her mind hazy with frustration and hurt, how could Tenten always manage to keep the composure of a _n__ō_mask. The beautiful woman hoped her mother-in-law would have the patience to teach her everything that was missing in her education.

"I see that Hyuuga-sama's views on marriage haven't changed," the Nara replied icily. "I need to depart soon for my lands in order to prepare my wedding. Considering the weather, I suppose this won't be a problem. I will take my leave for a week."

Once more, he felt the gap women had dug between them; one believed in the duty of marriage and the other, in the love bond that unite two persons. The shogun's furrowed further his brows when he saw the meek and nervous servants he had sent back earlier made their way across the stone path. Lowly, he growled as Shikamaru, dropping his stare on his laps, smirked.

"I suppose your wedding plans also interfere with the way I run my household."

He stepped back in the shadows allowing his captain to step in the mansion. Relieved, Ino sat up before making her way to the door dropping her sandals in the process. She kept her stare on the floor walking behind Shikamaru as the two men progressed towards a ceremonial living room. Silk cushions were displayed in a circle and pearly and light green lotuses were painted on the screens. Tall vases embedded with pieces of jade mirrored the faint sun rays in each corner of the wide room. Harshly, the shogun sent the servants to bring tea and a light breakfast. In silence, they sat down.

"Well," the war lord said detailing the nervous woman as they waited for the servants' return. "I can see she has noble blood."

Shikamaru nodded knowing it was his friend's way to make amends for his harsh tone of earlier. He detailed her crimson face. Ino had the physical features he would have hoped for his concubine but he could see her mind reeling, her emotions clear and on display on her face. She lacked the emotional and physical control Tenten had. He didn't know why he compared the two women in his mind. He cleared his throat when his thoughts led him back to the slim neck and auburn hair of Tenten that glimmered in the sun. Tenten's beauty was fierce, he concluded glancing away from the woman's delicate features.

"This is Ino Yamanaka from the Yamanaka clan. She will take my name in the day after tomorrow."

She bowed slightly in a graceless nervous manner as he nodded stiffly. Ino's lightly clenched fists rest on the tatami as she had seen Sakura do it so many times in ceremonial meetings where she wasn't allowed. She felt ridiculous in her travel clothes in the dimmed lustrous room. The mats still smelled of wood and had kept the light bitter smell of incense.

"I think I don't want to know whether her presence is legal or not."

"Don't be such a troublesome man, Neji," Shikamaru muttered passing a nervous hand through his hair.

"Hn. The wedding gift you talked about earlier, I suppose it is Tenten."

"Women are troublesome. The moment you think they will ask for jewelry, they ask for another troublesome woman."

Ino darted her eyes towards her soon-to-be husband and she saw the outline of amusement around his mouth. She pursued her lips as the servants set black wooden trays before them. They served and poured jasmine tea for each of them in slow elaborate movements.

"Wake your mistress up," Neji ordered barely looking at them as he reached for his cup of tea. "Tell her I have visitors in the living room."

Quietly, they disappeared behind tightly shut doors the Nara clansman following with his dark eyes their shadows through the screens. Moments later, the younger servant opened the sliding doors biting her lip. Her cheeks were rosy and her breath uneven from running. Neji froze seeing the "they" Tenten had mentioned earlier in the fear her pupils still held.

"Lee-sama would like to know what he must do about the Uchiha warlord and the Uzumaki princess asking for Hyuuga-sama at the gates."

The shadows had ceased their dance and their prowling could now erupt in broad light.

They were now waiting at the gates.

-X-

**I hope you have enjoyed! Please take the time to review! :)**


	9. Blind

**I really enjoyed writing this so I hoped you will enjoy reading it. School is done so you will hear more from me. ;)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

-X-

"_You told me to wait, Nara! To do nothing! Uchiha is now at my concubine's gate laughing his ass off."_

"_Neji, it was the best move..."_

Birds fled their nest in strident croaks and flapping of wings. They rose above the stillness of the wind, the charged animosity enclosing its bony claws around the mansion. Dimmed pallid light warmed the cool air of the early morning up. Dauntingly, it played across the sun reflection on blades and hidden daggers across from her. Suddenly, the wind died and a familiar stench reached her nostrils. Death.

"_The best move?! You brought him here, Nara!"_

In her room, the concubine heard it as an echo through the screens; the accusation, unfolding rage. 'No, I did.' She didn't feel the relief she expected in her heart. Pawns are played then disregarded. She would be a victim just like him.

However, he would die a shogun and she would die a pawn.

"_I didn't! I checked the troublesome road, Hyuuga. I took all the precautions that your paranoia could've possibly imagined." _

The words still reached her through blunt sensation. Her mind wandered past the shouting, the quick steps of the servants. Past the ongoing masquerade. It focused on the machination. Her mind wandered as something crawled under her skin. Steel, weapons and death. Her eyes closed, she counted six soldiers in her garden, six lurking shadows tightly surrounding her house in the rising morning. The last raven croaked away leaving the sky bare.

Silence.

Thirst.

She didn't fight it as the thrilling appeal of blood filled her. Dazed, she distantly felt the movements of her body as she inched a sliding door open. 'You are not a killer,' she kept repeating herself but something still pulsated inside of her at the mention of blood and weapons. Dry leaves and dead thawed flowers steeped in a grayish light. She still couldn't decide if she yearned for a fight or for the run.

"_It wasn't enough. It isn't enough, Nara, we are surrounded. He's won. The goddamn bastard has won."_

Tenten opened her eyes.

Her blood, her nature yearned for the kill.

She was a dragon, not a pawn.

-X-

**Blind  
**_**by Clementive**_

-X-

Her heart pounded in her head filling it with echoes of future battles, of beheaded men. Tenten could barely feel her knees still pressed against the wooden floor. Barely hear the soft rustle of Ino Yamanaka's skirts on the floor as she paced.

"Sakura is with him."

Hazel eyes reluctantly left the shadows of the trees and met light blue orbs. Light beamed from the small gasp between the sliding doors darkened their profile. They breathed into their anger, the past that still intertwined their future with hers. Sakura.

The muttered words awoke the memory of an old rivalry deep inside of the concubine. The scar was still raw, still itching at the thought of the pink haired lady's beauty and the aristocratic barrier between them. Light headed, she still felt the old familiar presence of jealousy screaming in her head. She remembered teaching her the steps of traditional dance under Tsunade's watchful honey stare. Tenten shook her dark locks returning to the contemplation of glinting weapons. She didn't want to think about Sakura Haruno or how plain she felt next to her. Her childhood primarily consisted of butchered Japanese words and a beauty she could never have despite her best effort, her flawless movements whenever she danced.

"You are trying to make this personal. Ino, that won't work. Didn't you hear him?" Her voice rang distant to her ears as only the sound of her rushing blood filled her head. Her jaw was rigid as it moved. "Hyuuga-sama told me to wait here and keep quiet," she mocked in a blank voice.

Tenten wished for the deafening silence she was used to; anything but the edge in Ino's voice while they waited, the mutters of the two shoguns and the light tired voice of Sakura Uzumaki. She was tired of the wait. She imagined her death being painless next to the agony of the wait, the heavy sound of a beheaded corpse falling forward.

"Besides, I'm not willing to interfere," she murmured slowly trying to convince herself rather than her friend.

Her thirst roared inside of her and Ino kept pacing.

Her father used to tell her when he began her training that the thirst will amplify with the years with the number of scrolls she would fill with the name of the ones she would have killed. 'I am not a killer.' Even in her mind, it rang false, desperate and childishly coy. They promised her, it would become easier and she knew it to be true.

A cadaver in the forest and six men in her garden.

The blond haired woman's features quivered with anger. In one swift movement, she stopped. she opened the wooden chest near the futon and rummaged through the kimono. Blinking, her friend stared at her, her long fingers still pressed against the wooden door. The crashing and banging of her friend made her wince and the voices ceased momently in the living room.

"You are interfering! I can't because they want my head but you can! And you will!" The usual high shrill of her voice was replaced by an icy low tone.

"Ino!" She hushed surprised at her controlled outburst and wild eyes.

"Do your witty game! Buy time! Shika would need time to come up with a plan," her voice wavered as she rushed the words out of her mouth.

She crossed the room encircling in an iron grasp her friend's wrist. She flinched back at the pain distorting Ino's beautiful face. Fear was a sickening feeling. Suddenly, tears darted the corner of her big blue eyes and her face blanched.

Yes, it was sickening and weakening.

"I don't care about Hyuuga-sama, heck, this man is cold and paranoiac but Shika is with him." She paused breathing heavily. "I also care about Konoha. So, you are interfering."

Narrowing her eyes, she shrugged off the older woman grasp, pushing a silver kimono with dark floral patterns towards Tenten. She closed her eyes biting slightly her below lip. She had never imagined the color yellow would come back to haunt her in a time like this, when her and her friend's lives were at stake. When they were surrounded, outnumbered and vulnerable.

"Ino… I… wore the yellow kimono. I chose my side. I can't."

She waited, her breath caught in her throat as the words sank in. Women working for Tsunade all knew what yellow and red entitled. Danzou usually used them to carry out his was the color of acceptance of terms marking one a spy, a listening and watching lover. Red was never worn as it led to certain death, for two lovers.

Blue eyes darkened in response and the disgust they beheld hurt her more than the slap. Petrified, they stared at one another, only the sound of their breath filled the room. For a while, the conversation in the next room also ceased.

"Try to understand, Ino," Tenten hesitated while her head whirled with pain. "Danzou-sama gave me a name when no one else would."

He gave her a weapon and he made a weapon out of her.

In answer, she clenched her hand, her nails biting in her already burning palm as she shook her golden curls. Then, it was unclenched pointing at her friend's aflame cheek.

"No, Tenten, _you_ try to understand. If you are his pawn, you are my enemy." She trusted her chin forward willing it not to quiver as she held a curved dagger in her hand.

"I could easily overpower you," she answered in a small voice staring at the dagger rather than the merciless look in Ino's face.

"I know but you won't. You are no killer, _Tiantian_." Emotionless, she bent over towards her staring at the impact of her words on the concubine's face. "But I swear over my parents' tombs if you don't leave me a choice, I will kill you and I will feel no remorse. This is my husband and this is my home."

Tenten closed her eyes.

'You are no killer,' she repeated inwardly and somehow her heart told her otherwise.

"So, which one is it,_ Tiantian_? Are you really Danzou's pawn?"

Somehow, a part of her was calmly calculating the weak point of Ino's dagger.

She opened her eyes.

-X-

The two shoguns faced one another across the ceremonial living room. Sasuke Uchiha sat down deliberately omitting to bow. In response, Rock Lee and Shikamaru Nara hunched forward staring sternly at the warlord before them. Shadowing the prodigy of the Uchiha clan, a petite woman took nervous steps before kneeling slightly behind. Biting her lip, she refused to avert her eyes from the hurtful glance Lee gave her or to drop her stare before the shogun of the shogunate of the Fire. She knew her place and she kept repeating in her mind that she was their equal; the wife of a shogun and a member of the infamous Senju clan. However, Lee made her doubt herself, her silky kimono with the sign of her insignia of the Uzumaki clan. Naruto's insignia that she wore despite him not responding to Sasuke's message. 'Naruto…' The pink haired lady nervously bit her below lip.

"Uchiha."

"Hyuuga."

She tensely watched the silent match between the two shoguns. Pearl eyes stared hard in onyx amused orbs. Neji saw triumph at the corner of his mouth as it curved into a smirk and he felt his strategist stiffened behind him. The Uchiha warlord was not stupid enough to bring a large cavalry that would elicit the immediate reaction of the clans of the valley and not stupid enough to come alone. He thought of his concubine and his uneasiness turned to a frosty intuition in the pit of his stomach.

"Should I introduce you to Uzumaki-hime, Hyuuga, or do you remember her?"

"No need to introduce me to your decoy, Uchiha." He replied harshly. "Pink hair is quite noticeable. In fact, you will only make it even easier for us to spot your men hiding in my land if she were with them. Now that I am at it; I hardly call that hiding."

Sasuke's smirk widened and his suspicion was confirmed. He felt Shikamaru's body shifted in rigid movement behind him and he hoped the Uchiha didn't notice their weakness. Inwardly, he growled. With women weighing so heavily on their mind, the intruder had the upper hand. It was obvious that he wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice his decoy by the way he held a certain distance between his body and Sakura's. Lee's mind was wrapped around the pink haired lady, Nara's around Ino and his around his concubine. 'All useless', he thought bitterly, clenching his fists.

All men before soldiers.

"I will cut the chase if you will, Hyuuga. This shogunate is rightfully mine. It isn't personal really. You should just surrender."

Behind him, he heard knuckles tightening their grip around the pommel of katanas. He didn't flinch and Sasuke arrogantly stared around him as if he was already at home. Behind him, Shikamaru joined his hand closing his eyes. 'We need time,' he thought cringing inwardly.

"Is that what you told your brother before killing him?" His voice was drenched with sarcasm as a smirk slowly formed on his lips. "Should I take it that we are family now, Uchiha?"

Disgust and hatred twisted the warlord's features for a brief moment. Before Sasuke could answer him, a succession of hollow loud sounds made them both pause and reach for their weapons. He avoided looking at his captain as onyx orbs didn't leave his face.

"Funny," he said harshly locking his glance with his rival's. "It seems there's more than one rat in my house."

"At least, I won't die like one."

In one rapid movement of the wrists, their blades were naked, gleaming with the pale summery light filtering through the shades. Before they could meet, something deviated them strongly as the doors slid open. Their blades vibrated unpleasantly in their hand as if they had hit a wall with them. Sakura let out a small shriek. There she was, walking between in graceful steps between them. A perfect composed smile on her painted lips, she tapped with her fan on Sasuke's blade. Frozen, their lips slightly ajar, they remained in fighting positions. They both wore a mask of utter confusion.

"Please put away this horrible thing, Uchiha-sama. I hate the idea of weapons in my house."

Her voice seemed unnatural, high and cheery. Neji opened his mouth to snap but he felt no fear or anger. Her geisha mask made him gulp soundly. Her lips were painted in red and her hair appeared silkier dancing freely around her half exposed shoulders. She was beautiful, draped in the colors of his clan. A woman in black and white with painted lips and glowing hazel eyes. Her hand brushed by him and for a second he forgot the Uchiha, the immediate danger of her presence and their situation. She pressed his arm until he found himself sitting with her by his side.

"I apologize, Uchiha-sama, but I always wake up around this hour. I dearly hope, Uchiha-sama will find it in his heart to forgive me."

She raised one shoulder, smiling innocently as she fanned herself. 'She's buying time,' he understood entranced. Silently, he made a sign to Shikamaru but he still had his eyes closed.

"I was here for Hyuuga, I don't even know who you are, girl," Sasuke answered with icy disgust still standing with his drawn weapon in his hand.

"Then I don't understand Uchiha-sama's presence here. This is my house, Uchiha-sama." She widened her eyes glancing from one shogun to the other. "Surely, Uchiha-sama isn't acting with dishonor and circling my house with six men so he can kill Hyuuga-sama and, finally, take over his shogunate without a proper battle."

"Tenten!" Sakura snapped outraged.

'Six men,' Neji repeated inwardly nodding stiffly towards Lee.

"Oh my, Sakura-chan! I hardly recognized you wrapped in a kimono that doesn't seem to belong to a runaway bride!"

He gripped her elbow, glancing side-way at her apparent calmness. Turning bright red, Sakura gritted her teeth together staring hard the older woman before her. Shocked, they barely noticed, Lee as he slipped out of the room.

"Now tell me, Uchiha-sama… how is her swing of the hip? It took me nearly one year to make it seem less stiff."

"Are you accusing me of adultery, Tenten?" she shrieked jumping on her feet. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides as her emerald eyes darkened.

"Of course not, Sakura-chan, don't be silly. I'm just suggesting what Hyuuga-sama may be thinking."

Shikamaru opened his eyes.

"What is it, Hyuuga, you don't have a second father so you need to use that foolish girl to do your bidding and send her to a certain death."

In a blink of her eyes, the world seemed to explode all at once.

Thrown roughly on the side, the two women slid across the cushions hitting hard the floor. Dazed, the concubine heard an abrupt strident sound and the pounding steps of Neji's captain. The shoguns ripped the screens opened and their body rolled onto the dirt, the damp earth, as they exchanged blows. Their fight resembled a rapid angry dance. Glimpses of gleaming silver surrounded their bodies and their movements were blurred. Weighed down by her robes, she raised on all four her vision slightly swaying from shock. Her eyes widened, she saw him clearly. She hadn't seen it before, blinded by her own thoughts of revenge. The Hyuuga warlord fought to protect his people, not for power. Breathing heavily and stunned, she glanced briefly over at Sakura's disrupted robes.

Shrills rose above the tantrum in her garden. Holding her side, her breath caught in her throat. Dark tendrils twirled, wrapping the tall trees of her garden. Two men erupted from the forest their skin ablaze. The flames licked the dry leaves at their feet while they still voiced their agony. Startled, Tenten saw for a brief moment the shadows above them move and take the shape of a man a silver pipe dangling between his lips.

"Sasuke-kun!"

She jumped on her feet coughing at the smell of burned flesh. Two other men came running from the forest mercilessly leaving their burned comrades to their pain without a stare. As they approached, they attempted to surround the Hyuuga warlord. Her eyes ran over the chaos unfolding before her. Her hand twitched at her side for a weapon and her mouth opened but nothing came out of it.

Lazily, a katana snaked and ripped the belly open of a hiding man while Lee pressed against the ground another soldier with a cracked skull. Blows landed and piercing screams joined in the cacophony. Sakura pushed past her and jumped onto the garden.

"SASUKE-KUN!"

His two remaining men caught him as he pressed a hand to his left eye. Sakura joined him and when she touched his hand he whipped it away making her jump. There was no blood. Frozen, she stared frightened at the still raised palms of the Hyuuga warlord.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY EYE, HYUUGA?"

His vision shook and darkness embraced him. His sight faded to black and his last image was a smirking Hyuuga with a deep cut on his cheek, his front robs soaking in blood. His katana was embedded in the dirt next to him and he was still in the stance of the gentle fists of the Hyuuga style. His forehead drenched in sweat he calmed his breath and marched towards the kneeling Uchiha warlord.

"We will meet in battle, Hyuuga." Dark shadows played on his pale complexion and the shogun nearly saw the distorted face of a monster. "This isn't over."

He was blind and a monster shaped with pure rage and vengeance.

The dark smoke surrounded them and when the wind managed to blow it away, they were gone.

Breathing heavily, Neji turned to her half his face already masked by blood.

"Are you alright, Tenten?"

She shivered, her eyes wide open.

-X-

It vacillated between them, the question and the answer that they weren't ready to give to one another. Hazel eyes firmly avoided pearl eyes while the Nara captain and Lee cleaned burned the bodies. Ino remained on the side, sternly looking at the shogun and his concubine.

"I do not need medical attention," he slurred weakly pushing her away.

"Stop moving or you may also end up blind," Tenten hissed a metallic thread between her lips.

She pressed her hand against his cheek trying to hold his head even. His skin still burned her, ringing past the disgust and anger within her, pas everything she had ever known. His wound was half sewed but the blood has stopped pouring. Weakened by blood loss, the warlord grumblingly let her tend to his wound. She watched him warily as he closed his eyes expecting him to persevere in battling her hand away. He resting his head against the girder of the veranda and she found herself amused by his stubbornness.

"You are lucky, Hyuuga-sama." She said trying to keep her voice light. "This is the only medical attention I can provide."

She pushed away any thought of her mother tending to wounds during the first battle against the Hyuuga clan. Her mother, a healer. Her father and her, both killers, both yearning for blood.

She had never been meant to be a healer.

In response, the shogun only grunted. Grimacing inwardly at the cool sensation of the thread piercing his skin, Neji thought of the ripped sliding doors, the half burned garden and forest and, finally, his blood soiling her kimono. He didn't recall losing his cold in battle but his father was the only skeleton in his past that reached him.

"Why did you…"

"Ino," she answered quickly, avoiding his eyes.

"Hn."

A light breeze rolled ashes around them and he suddenly gripped her wrist. She let out an annoyed sound. Blank feverish orbs stared hard at her and she paused, her breath painfully caught in her throat.

"And why are doing this, now?"

Slowly, she untangled herself from his hand. In silence, she kept sewing but his eyes burnt her skin, past her mask and he stopped herself from asking him what he saw when she didn't know herself what she felt. Her nimble fingers brushed against his skin until she cut the thread off in one swift motion. She tied it in a tight small knot.

"Answer me."

"When I was little, I thought I could become like them through hard work. Then, it became obvious that I would remain plain and ugly. I wanted to resemble Tsunade-sama so badly. I wanted to be as beautiful as her, as beautiful as Sakura-chan. But now," she gave in to a bitter laugh as she brushed her laps distractingly. "Now, I only see ugly creatures. Power has eaten them up to the bone."

She leveled her eyes so that she would meet his.

"You aren't fighting for power. I can't be sure of your motivations but I can distinguish a man who fights for what he believes in from a monster blinded by power."

"You are wrong," he answered sternly.

She jolted in surprise at the coldness distinct in his orbs. He leaned forward until he felt her quickened heart beat flushing her skin. His unflinching stare traveled down her slim shoulders than up again to her neck to finally stop on her rosy lips.

"You are everything but ugly," Neji muttered slowly. "I would never stare at Uzumaki-hime or at Senju-hime the way I stare at you."

-X-

**The small wait was due to me losing my password. I'm sorry about that, next chapter will be in a week as it used to :) Please, take the time to review; positive criticisms are always welcomed! :D **


	10. Killing Shadows

**And I'm back on the one-update-per-week-schedule! ;) Please enjoy!**

-X-

**Killing Shadows  
**_**by Clementive**_

The sun pierced in thin sunrays the dense foliage of the forest. The wind made them dance against one another, sliding briskly against his pale complexion. In a constant rainfall, the pine needles that the sun had scorched interrupted him. As some of them lightly pierced his skin, he batted them away.

Sai hated the seasonal swings of nature. Permanence was the only state of time and space in his mind, the only one that actually mattered: death. Sometimes, when he observed his prey he found a similar irregularity in their wavering fear. He didn't know if he felt that Danzou had freed him from that pathetic human condition of instability.

He didn't feel; he merely killed.

No question, no answer only permanence and his mark engraved on a tree above each of his victim.

The air tasted earthy and damp in his throat. Expressionlessly, Sai let the flies bit at his skin as he furrowed his brows merely concentrating on his art. He found that only before a hunt, only engraved in a tree did his art have depth. In swift movements, his hand dug, moving his knife deeper into the bark of the tree. He felt a certain resistance, the thickness of the tree. So much like human bones when he cut through them, so much like death.

With the sun rays, the colors changed around him, morphing with the promise of an aggressive hot sun. He slapped his neck, leaving a bloody smear where he had felt yet another needle. Cocking his head, he took two steps back calmly looking for flaws and irregularities in his doing.

Softly, his breath blew away the wood dust that smudged the edge of his croaking raven. His anatomy had to be precise and faithful to reality. His wrist twisted as if he were painting until a satisfied empty smile curved Sai's lips. It soothed him, his art and the human body emptiness once it was done and permanent in its state.

Around him, the tree glittered again; gold and red.

Turning his back to his mark, he began his hunt.

Diving between the branches, he left the nature undisturbed as he ran across it. He was farther east that where Danzou told him he would find his target. He enjoyed the prowl, being the onyx eyes of the shadows. The tightening muscles of a target's shoulders were part of his quest of stability. Physical characteristics never lie unlike human words. When his targets came across his mark, their reaction turned them into tumbling rabbits. Their nervous glance examined briefly surrounding trees. At this point, Sai could smell their sweat, their fear.

Vulnerable, they fell.

Frozen, they died.

He blinked and the trees around him were orange, yellowish dancers that attempted to trip him. Absentminded, he touched his damp forehead, the foggy memory of a needle piercing his neck disappearing in a corner of his mind when he felt a thousand ants running down his spine as cold sweat. In a glimmering violet edge vision, he felt his body movements slowed. Thirst burned his throat and the sun swung between the trees.

Vulnerable, he fell.

His knees met the damp earth and croaking ravens filled his head. Caged in his own body, Sai didn't feel his slowing heartbeat or the fixity of his gaze onto the root of the tree where his raven was engraved.

The shadow took a human form as it bent over the limp body.

"You are so young," a light voice murmured in Chinese. "I hate it when you are so young and dying. Such a waste."

Frozen, he died.

-X-

When he blinked, her shadow appeared in the corner of his mind. Vengeful, its darkness reaching for him. He felt its cold hand on his shoulder sliding up his throat and he didn't trust himself to move. Its icy breath caressed his ear murmuring the words of yesterday and their poison.

She screamed endlessly in his mind.

"You should eat or drink, nii-san. Frankly, you look awful."

The reverie shook, rippling in echo through his mind.

Neji Hyuuga gritted his teeth together trying to keep his calm in front of his cousin. He gripped the edge of his desk until he felt focus again. Oblivious to his uneasiness, Hanabi brought her cup of tea to her lips tranquilly savoring the rich aroma of the amber liquid.

"Well, nii-san, is it true?" She leaned forward, her face expressionless but her eyes sparkled with dark pleasure as she carefully set the cup of tea in front of her.

"What is?" He snapped distractedly searching for the latest report of the southern borders of his shogunate.

The shogun cringed inwardly when she snapped open her fan in a delicate movement. He knew exactly why she was here. '_I would rather be facing the old men than her._' He had thought the elders of the main branch would find him first, lurking around his office in the morrow like hungry wolves. Instead, his cousin had made her way in a rich kimono that restricted both her steps and her movements.

"I heard her screams," she said evenly watching his reaction closely.

Tensed muscled, but nothing else.

Disappointed, she reached forward for a bean paste pastry in the plate she had set between them. Neji narrowed his eyes pausing in his search restraining himself from throwing a cold glare to the young princess. He heard them too, tearing at his eardrums. Savage screams of her shadow that cursed him. She pointed at his forehead and her face still haunted him as she was dressed in all her violence.

"_I made you a member of the main branch! Your marriage to me is the only thing that doesn't remind them every day of your lower birth, of that disgraceful mark on your forehead." _

"Don't you usually have training at this hour, Hanabi-sama?"

The warlord cleared his throat busying his hands with endless pages of reports that rang empty when he read them inwardly. Deep shadows were quivering in his vision and he suddenly felt the heavy weight of his sleepless night on his shoulder.

"I told Anko-sensei that I wasn't feeling well," she replied stealing a glance at him through thick eyelashes.

The elegantly curved letters seemed to dance on the paper before him. He gave up on the report, letting the brush fall back into the inkpot. He closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. His head swam, filled with doubt, torn between darkness and the pearl light eyes of his cousin; reality.

"You know very well that I don't approve of this kind of behaviour, Hanabi-sama. Your father wouldn't either," he heard himself say.

The shogun breathed slowly trying to regain control, over her, over his wild mind.

"I told Father that she's wasn't appropriate for you," she replied ignoring him as she broke down another piece of the pastry in her hand. "The second house of our clan in the south is weak. And that doll had no place in _our_ house. Now that you have sent her away, we can find you a more suitable spouse, nii-san."

He briskly opened his eyes watching her eat. A wild shadow curved on her forehead as he watched her mouth moved. Frozen, he reached for his own forehead. His mark burned his hand through the cloth. Jagged words snaked within him.

He flinched.

"_Don't worry, Neji-sama, they probably made sure that you won't have children with her either. You will die alone just like your father and everyone will call it destiny."_

"Hanabi-sama, I thank you for your concern but I've only sent my wife back to her family for the length of the war. As you've heard, she strongly disagreed," he said carefully sipping some of his tea.

"And your concubine will come here for the length of the war," she added placidly reaching for another pastry.

His throat was suddenly dry. His wife's screams ceased and he pictured Tenten wrapped in anger at the prospect of living here, living in a place that represented everything that she hated. When he had made movement towards her, she had left abruptly avoiding him since then. He pushed the thought of her bloody kimono rippling around her body as she walked away from him the previous morning.

"Her house is unfortunately too near to the border we share with the Uchiha shogunate."

His cousin's placid face was suddenly so close to his that he could see her pale pupils dilating with excitement.

"Is it true, nii-san?"

"I just told you-" He snapped annoyed glaring at her before she cut him off by waving her fan under his nose.

"Is it true that she killed a man with only one kunai?"

-X-

Panic strangled her.

She thought it would be easy. She had played the game so many times; she could now sense the movement of the knights within her. She held them in her clench fist; she manipulated them. She had forgotten that they held weapons in their sleep and fought with the gift of their eyes. It was a mistake that could cost her head. Idly, she stared at the old man before him.

Next door, her husband was pacing talking in hushed words to men from the police department unaware to the present of Danzou in his house.

"This is getting out of hand, Danzou," she whispered licking her dry lips.

She had lost control.

The Senju princess nervously pressed her hands against one another. Her daughter was gone again and her movements were weighed down by the pressure, the fear of being caught. Shame was only one step away from death. Her pieces were cornered on the shogi board and shadows were reaching across their game, smearing their calculations, erasing the impacts of their machination. Tsunade shook her golden hair, her honey eyes still wild. She still saw Sakura endless tears and Sasuke's lifeless orbs.

"You shouldn't have sent Sasuke to Tenten's house," he replied coldly. "That was your mistake."

Her apparent weakness disgusted him. His need for her irritated him. Such weak pieces, but somehow essential. Still, puppets were always limp dolls carefully balanced by a master.

"I thought we could get rid of both of them at the same time. I didn't count on Nara Shikamaru to be there."

"Both of them?" He repeated narrowing his eyes as he leaned towards Tsunade. "What do you mean 'both of them'?"

The air stilled between them and he watched her slow blinks, her own disgust as she pitched her rosy lips. His blood froze in his veins. The sound of Jiraiya's voice was suddenly deafening along with his breaths. He couldn't shake off the unpleasant iciness that he felt at the prospect of losing her, a piece he had so carefully watch grow and blossom. 'I will kill her if she tries something like that again,' he darkly vowed to himself.

"Tenten and-"

His unleashed anger startled her. A savage shadow ran across his face and her breath caught in her throat.

"And how exactly did you plan on getting rid of the Hyuuga and the Uchiha without the armor?"

"Tenten's just a pawn, Danzou. Don't make her more than she is," she spat qui a quiet voice.

'No, you are the pawn, Tsunade.' Playing in the shadows sometimes killed him but he couldn't reveal everything that he knew. Not yet, the time still wasn't right. Instead, his face shook and he settled back placidity on his features.

The mask of the master ready to play her. Again and again, he still played her within his strings.

"Do you know how many men died because of this armor?" His voice quiet as he pushed himself on his feet with his cane. "And Tenten's the key to it. So, be careful Tsunade because she's not a pawn. She's the board itself."

He left her with no further word. The air shook with the electricity of nearing thunder around him as a shadow fell in step with him. Frowning, he stopped walking tasting the hefty humidity in his bones.

Behind him, the shadow kneeled.

"Fast," he barked.

He hated when they showed up without he asking them to. Pawns shouldn't take such liberty.

"Sai's body was returned this morning to your compound, Danzou-sama."

The news rocked his old bones. It started in his throat then the movements reached his shoulders to finally explode in his mouth. He humourlessly laughed shaking his head while sending his shadow back to darkness by a distracted wave of the hand.

"So you let her live after all, Hiaishi," he smirked talking to the shadow of the past as he carried on walking in careful slow steps. "And she's still guarding the armor for you, how touching."

-X-

"My name is Matsuri, Tenten-sama. Please be charitable about my young age. I will serve you at the best of my capacity."

With a frozen smile, the concubine observed the young woman in front of her. She had short pale brown hair and her dark eyes remained fixed on her knees. Her timidity approached nervousity and she could also observe it on Neji's posture. Next to her, he shifted then cleared his throat waiting for an answer.

"Why are you giving me a new servant, Hyuuga-sama? The other two did satisfactory work."

She avoided looking directly into his pearl eyes as she pulled at her mask so that it would fit her pleasant act. In slow movements, she fanned herself.

"We need to move," he said quickly locking eyes with her.

"Does the living room not suit your taste, Hyuuga-sama?" Tenten asked playfully raising a brow. "Or is this child dismissing us?"

The shogun cleared his throat again forcing the words out of his mouth before his resolve could weaken.

"I meant that we need to move from this house to another."

Her fan snapped close.

Her smile fell off her mask and her face darkened. He paused as her eyes burned through his.

"Step outside, Matsuri-chan, please," she ordered in a blank voice.

"Pack her things while you are at it, Matsuri-chan," he added in a measured voice.

The confrontation began in the stillness of the room as they refused to free one another from their stare. Slowly, Tenten narrowed her eyes at him as the young servant nervously bowed. Quickly, she slid the doors open and slipped out.

"No," she said simply once the doors slid back into their place.

Raw pain exploded within her and her mind fluttered with cadavers and haunting pearl eyes. She wouldn't, she couldn't.

"It's the only way for you to be safe."

"I was safe when I had my weapons on me," she snapped. "I'm not the one who let my blade fall onto the ground during a fight."

"Tenten…"

She shook her head, some locks falling from her bun in the process. When she moved, her shadow imprinted her broken motions on the thin layers of the sliding doors. They appeared as droplets of blood, as ghosts of her past. 'Surely, he doesn't know…' She watched him closely, looking for a sign, for the recognition she would fear on the elders' face if she were to live under their roof.

Fear compressed her chest.

"The pressure I applied on his ocular nerves won't make him permanently blind. Uchiha will see again in a month or two."

"I don't care about the Uchiha, Hyuuga or whatever clan," she shouted forcibly. "This is nothing to me!"

"It's just a compound, Tenten," the warlord replied impatiently.

"Would you also expect me to drink tea with your wife, Hyuuga-sama?" She asked sarcastically. "Or to sleep between the two of you?"

"I sent her away yesterday."

She pinched her lips whipping his words away with a graceful agitation of the wrist.

"You've truly gone mad, Hyuuga-sama. I'm not moving from here."

She abruptly stood up reaching for the sliding door of the veranda. She couldn't shake off the fear as it penetrated her bones and accelerated her heartbeat. 'No, no, no,' her mind screamed.

Outside, her skin swam in bright colors, an elongated shadow in toe. Tenten ignored his cries until his skin grazed hers. He caught her with ease before she could reach her room. He forced her to face him, his hands almost painfully digging at her arms. The garden still smelled of burned flesh and curdled blood.

"We need-"

"There's no 'we', Hyuuga-sama," she cut him off trying to push him away.

She lurched at him, her features quivering with disgust. Dragons were allied with the moon of his eyes long time ago. For now, they were enemies. It was them and her in separated ground and customs.

She wished he could hear the hammering of her heart, the silent shrills of her mind so that he would understand. They belonged to different world. She was the hidden concubine, the woman who should have never survived a massacre. She stared at him as his features froze in an expressionless mask. They were exposed, bare to one another. Her widened hazel eyes closed as she felt his hands slowly release their grip. Short throaty breaths broke out of her chest.

"There's no 'we'," she repeated quietly opening her eyes to the void of his.

He stood frozen, as she staggered away from him. He expected the world to stop turning, the concubine to disappear. The shogun couldn't admit to himself that her words hurt him deeper than his wife's had.

Breathing soundly, she kept shaking her head. Again, she walked away from him.

"I can't go there, Hyuuga-sama, and I won't."

He saw the shadow of whom he used to be in her stubbornness; he glimpsed at the familiar ties of destiny around her.

"When will you finally live in the present? They are dead and they won't come back whether you live here or there."

Neji barely recognized his harsh voice as it vibrated through his chest hitting her façade. He had merely wanted to chase his old shadow and now he had driven her away. He helplessly watched her back stiffened and her delicate fists clench and unclench. She turned pale cheeks and angry narrowed eyes.

"My father was executed along with his brothers in the place you probably call your courtyard," she whispered coldly. "I know he's never coming back, Hyuuga-sama, but I certainly won't be walking on his blood."

"We don't execute people, don't be ridiculous."

She gave in to an empty laugh taking a step towards him. He watched her pupils flickered, up then down. The truth was blatant on her face as he saw the signs of painful memories. She looked up at him panting with pained hazel eyes and a sad smile.

"It looks like the Hyuuga elders have forgotten to tell you about that story. Are you really their shogun?"

"And who are you, Tenten?"

'A killer, a dragon, a fighter, a concubine.' Her mind whirled 'No one. I'm nameless.'

She flinched. Suddenly, her body appeared to be crumbling on itself, her hair slipping out of her messy bun. In two quick steps, he reached for her, closing the distance between them. His pearl eyes fell back on her rosy gaping lips. She tensed, her hands pushing against his chest as if she could physically experience his eyes traveling on her body. 'She's not going away. Not this time, not ever.'

Swiftly, his arm circled her lower back and her body was pressed against his. A cool sensation filled her as he secured the nape of her neck in his hand.

"Hyuuga-sama, stop," she voiced breathily.

She perceived the vibration of his lips through hers like a caress and her eyes fluttered close.

"How many times will I have to tell you to call me Neji?"

His fingers pressed down two points on her neck and she fell limply in his arms like a rag doll. Carefully, the shogun picked her up settling her head against her chest. Her features were calmer than he has seen them.

"You didn't leave me a choice," he murmured.

He stepped onto the charred herbs of the garden balancing her weight in her arms.

"Lee! We are leaving! Get her chest in her room and tell the men to bring in the palanquin."

In the dying sun, they were one and only shadow drawn onto the ground.

-X-

He woke up to a searing pain devouring his shoulder blade. Confusion seized him as he glimpsed at the darkness still surrounding him. A weight on his back immobilized him in the uncomfortable position as a hand pressed down his head onto the tatami. Bony knees pinned down his arms far from his body. With his vision still blurred with sleep, he saw the tangled sheets on the futon and her vacant place.

"Good morning, Tenten," Neji growled testing the mobility of his legs.

He felt her weight shifted on top of him. Her body bent over until her breath tickled his ear.

"I will make you regret every second that you brought me here, _Neji_. Every second."

Then, her weight was gone. Carefully, he pushed himself warily watching her form in the darkness. He inattentively started massaging the blood back in his arms. He couldn't help but smirk at the venom he had deciphered in her words. Amused, he watched her slipping back under the sheets and lie down her back to him.

-X-

**I'm quite a tease, I know. :P As always, feedback is appreciated. ;)**


	11. Blank Beast part 1

**Well, I rewrite this chapter perhaps three times. As you may notice, it is longer and it is divided in two parts. In other words, I will post the second part in three days since half of it is already written. **

**More than half of this chapter are NejiTen moments. There's a flashback (bonussss!).**

-X-

**Blank Beast part 1  
**_**by Clementive**_

-X-

_**14 years ago**_

It hurt to breathe, to move.

The threads circled her left forearm biting at her flesh. Red threads, red with her blood. Stiff sweaty locks of hair that had fallen from her buns veiled her vision. She could only see the dirt beneath her and his broad legs.

He was a mountain to her, the giant that won wars over wars.

"What did we say about precision, little shrimp?"

She gulped, her mouth dry, scorched by the unbearable sun.

"That I could lose a limb if I'm not precise, sir."

She suddenly found herself in the shades as he advanced towards her. His stern eyes bore through her and she willed herself to stay still. One movement and the threads would take her arm.

"And what was that sorry excuse of a footing, shrimp?"

She winced, staring up at his wide sunburnt face.

"It was wrong, sir," she answered dead-panned.

The giant smirked satisfied. His big hands reached past her and relief flowed through her as the metallic threads curled away from her arm.

"We are done for the day."

He turned away already picking up his weapons.

"But I can still fight, sir."

The little girl hoped he didn't hear the despair creeping in her voice, in her movements. She felt at ease on fighting not in the kimono her mother forced down on her or when she made medical paste.

"Shrimp…" He murmured menacingly looking over his shoulder. "I make the rules, you follow them. Don't make me repeat myself."

She nodded picking up her weapons on the ground. She stopped, her chest compressed, her stomach in a knot. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw him cross his arms glaring down at her.

"Papa?"

She fixed her buns at the top of her head avoiding the narrowed eyes.

"No "papa" on the battlefield, shrimp!" He grunted.

"Are you proud of me, papa?"

Whenever he moved, she thought the whole world moved. Whenever he breathed, there was the wind.

His wide back turned back to her and his scars wrinkled near his frown. When she felt his hand on her head, her knees nearly gave up because of its weight.

"You are young to be learning the executioner style. Do you really think I would lose my time teaching it to a useless shrimp?"

She licked her dry lips not quite meeting his deep brown eyes.

"What if I didn't have the silver palm, papa?"

"What is this, shrimp? Are you trying to get me emotional?"

She shrugged nervously and he sighed ruffling her hair.

"Then you would have the healing palm and you still wouldn't be a useless shrimp."

"But would you be disappointed like her?"

The giant blinked understanding finally.

She let out a small cry and she was suddenly in the air until he set her on his shoulders. The young girl gulped as she saw the world from his perspective; rice fields curving the mountains and their shades cutting out the blue sky. The sound of the sea made its way to them at night, when the village was asleep and their forge lukewarm. For a long time, he didn't answer he just walked towards their house, their bags of weapon in his hands.

"Now you listen to me, you little shrimp. Your mother is going through a tough time since the miscarriage and this is the only reason why she said that she was disappointed in you. Do you understand?"

"Yes, papa."

Hesitation crept in her voice and he chose to ignore it. She saw more than disappointment in her mother's pale eyes when the words of a medicinal recipe escaped her. Sometimes, she suspected fear guiding her hand to take away any weapons from her hands. She felt like the small plain beast; the daughter of a giant and a regular mortal.

"Good, now what do we tell mama about the blood?"

"I ran through the forest chasing after a rabbit and branches whipped me and that you can't heal a wound without making it worse."

The mountain beneath her shook and she heard his throaty laugh. Her arms tightened their grip around his neck as the village unfolded before them. Slowly, her eyes ran along the linear scars on her arms soothed by the familiar cries of her brothers.

Soon, she would be a dragon.

-X-

Mirrors always showed her the side of herself that she sold in dancing robes, a plainness she had grown to despise. The Hyuuga compound unfortunately housed men and women with the ability to see beyond the lies, the perfect smile and the graceful flying fans during a dance.

The concubine needed a new mask, for what mirrors couldn't show her, Hyuuga could in the reflection of their moon-like eyes. They would see the remainder of a distant past that almost destroyed their clan, the daughter of the House of the Dragon.

She closed her eyes sensing the quiet presence of her servant as she kneeled in front of the mirror crushing the rice into a white powder. Beneath the tatamis, the wood vibrated slightly under the weight of the clansmen returning from their early sparring. The warmth of the sun filtered through the paper screens of the sliding doors.

There was no escape from their glance but the mask. It slowly became a white paste when Matsuri added water to the rice powder.

Sighing, she opened her eyes reaching for the brush before her.

The sound of the sliding doors barely made her flinch as she raised a brow at his reflection in the mirror. A smirk slowly curved on her lips when she noticed the firmness of his jaw, the anger in his pearl eyes.

"I have been training with my men and do you know how many times I hit the target with my kunais?"

Neji pinched his lips nearing her kneeling form. Sometimes, he forgot who she was as she lost herself to the arms of a fictive physical aspect. He noticed her sleepless nights, the tremors running through her members as elders' eyes slid across her. He noticed the way her eyes averted the clansmen with missing limbs.

He didn't ask question; there was a silence between them that he caused.

"I don't know, Hyuuga-sama, I wasn't there," Tenten answered in a peachy voice.

It was all part of the act, the mask was being painted. She now needed to adjust her voice, the right vocal and the right impassivity, the calmness of a courtesan.

Somehow, his anger very morning was reaching for the part of her that disarmed him weeks ago. Somehow, he still found the patience within him to try to sever her mask.

Every morning, he tried to reach for her.

"Oh you weren't but my soldiers were!" the shogun shouted icily untying his sheath from his belt.

She approached the whitened brush from her face then she paused. It pained her to paint herself blank, to make herself disappear. Slowly controlling her breathing, she drew firm pattern until her face and neck were covered. Her fingers faintly brushed the powder on her brows.

She looked like a ghost, blank to her very core.

Pacing behind her, he passed a hand through his hair.

"Not once did I touch the target," he hissed glaring at her back. "When my weapon specialist looked at my weapons he said that the weight was maladjusted to my hand and height. You wouldn't happen to know who messed with my weapon, now would you?" He added dryly, his wheezing breath filling her cold uncaring silence.

In a delicate composed manner, she dabbed the powder on her face with a cloth that a shivering Matsuri held up to her. The shogun's lips became a hard line as he watched her light a thin long morsel of wood with the fire of the lamp.

The warlord stopped, giving in, pleading her with his eyes for a reaction.

"How long is this going to last, Tenten?"

She blew the fire out, staring in his softening eyes through the mirror as pale smoke framed her pale face.

"It depends, Neji."

Her finger felt the tepid blackened wood before she proceeded to blacken her eyebrows. She carefully drew straight thin lines above her eyes and used the rest of the dark morsel for her lids.

"How are the seconds of your time passing by? Any regret yet?" She uttered quietly her lips barely moving.

He shook his head turning away from her, away from her disguise.

With her, it has always been about the mask, the silk and the machinations darkening their relations.

With him, it has always been about imprisonment in the past.

-X-

Again, there was heavy silence between them as they lay in the darkness. An apology died on his lips as her most intimate fears died on hers.

The concubine imagined the face of fear to be as impassive and white as her mask. She just wished that she could wash it away at nighttime, watch it flow away from her as pale and dirty liquid snakes.

Invisible hands seemed to close up around her neck in the rest of the clan's presence. Tenten kept picturing the missing limbs and fingers, permanent remainder of their war against the Hyuuga clan more than a decennia ago. 'And that was only one day,' she thought wincing at the thought of a rising sun, of another day near them.

She watched the shogun's chest rise and fall in a rhythmic slow breathing. Yet, she couldn't sleep. Dusk paled the narrow horizon and only a few hours separated her from whitening her face once more.

Then there would be the same silence, the same routine imprisoning them.

She stared up at her scarred wrists and arms in the moonlight. The sheets hung to her body form with sweat and Tenten resisted the urge to kick them away in fear she would wake him up.

"You can't wake me up since I'm already awoken."

She jolted in surprise.

Without thinking, she let her fist fall on his shoulder earning a glare from him. His pearl orbs glowed for a moment then he closed his eyes once more his hand on her thin wrist.

"That was uncalled for, Tenten," he said coolly.

Rolling her eyes, she shrugged off his grip and turned her back to him.

"I don't care, I will be sick tomorrow. I'm not doing anymore tea ceremony with creepy eyes following my every move."

"As you wish but the matriarch of the Branch House will come to inspect you thinking you are pregnant."

His concubine could sense his smirk in the darkness as she grunted pushing away the sheets from her moist skin. Murmuring to herself, she turned back towards him searching from the slightest breeze from the agape sliding doors.

Ignoring her hectic movements, Neji brushed the silver thread still embedded in the skin of his cheek. She froze suddenly so near to his face that some trends of hair brushed his skin. His breath caught in his throat but then she was gone.

"Oh."

"What?" He snapped.

When he cracked an eye open she was kneeling next to him staring at his cheek with widened eyes her hand pressed against her mouth.

"I think I need to take those off today or you will have it embedded in your cheek for the rest of your life."

Abruptly, he sat up staring sternly at her. She cocked her head on the side and her mind whirled around what her mother used to say about sewed wounds.

"You _think_?" He asked incredulous catching both her reaching hands in his. "You mean, you have no idea how and when to take it off?"

"If I remember correctly, she did say something about three days." She murmured to herself pushing his hands away.

"_If_ you remember correctly?" He repeated slowly, his stature frozen by her doubt.

He fought her despite her skin burning his at each contact.

"Stop moving, Hyuuga," Tenten growled imprisoning his face in her hands.

Warily, he watched her inspected the scar, a needle dangling between her pinched lips.

"Wash it first."

"What if in one minute the thread is embedded in that pretty face forever?" She smirked waving the needle in front of his face. "But you are right, second heads grow out of my saliva all the time."

"Hygiene is no laughing matter, Tenten."

He glared at her before following the needle with his eyes as it approached his cheek.

"So is medicine," She added with a predatory smile. "As in I may poke your precious eyeball, if you don't stop moving."

He snapped his mouth shut glaring down her as her nimble fingers moved in rhythmic series of movements. She locked glance with him the entire time, a smirk plastered on her face. The flesh of his cheek pulled and suddenly he felt the free thread brushing against his cheek.

"There. Ask someone to put a medicinal cream on it and the scar will fade to a minimum."

He cleared his throat feeling with the tip of his fingers the pink scar on his cheek. A smirk played on his lips as she lay back on their bed staring up at the ceiling. Dark locks spilled around her and she closed her eyes in the moonlight. Carefully, he approached her, his breath mingling with the jasmine scent of her hair.

"Does you calling my face pretty mean that you find me attractive?"

Eyes wide-open, Tenten looked up in his pearl amused orbs trying to ignore the heat of his body radiating on hers.

"No," she snapped red-faced. "It means that tomorrow you still won't be able to land a weapon in any target, that servants would still be talking about your impotence and that if you keep annoying me I will kick you out of your own bed."

"Servants are talking about my what?"

She laughed quietly, her eyes sparkling with malice in the shades of their room.

"Every second, Hyuuga, so start counting."

-X-

As she slipped in her kimono, the elaborate hairstyle bound at her nape felt and moist by the heat of the breaking day. The mirror enhanced her imperfections. Disgust with herself, she reached for the powder pot where timeless pain and possibility of recognition were supposed to die.

Their backs to one another, they moved in the shadows for they couldn't face one another. In silence, the shogun pulled training robes while his concubine slipped back in her disguise.

Past their silence still lied her anger.

"I prefer you without make-up, Tenten," he declared clumsily wincing inwardly at the roll of her eyes.

"And I prefer my old house." she shot back in a leveled voice.

Immediately, she smoothed the cracking edges of her white face with her fingers avoiding looking at the muscles of his back through the mirror.

"Hn."

His breathing and his scent had become so familiar to her that it scared her. She found it too ironic, too painful that his presence reassured her from the unflinching stares of the rest of the clan.

They parted; a stern shogun and a peachy concubine.

When Tenten stepped outside, the sun was alone in the sky setting her skin beneath the mask ablaze and pearl eyes were dancing, circling her once more. Claustrophobia wrapped its arms around her and she willed herself not to flinch. The quiet presence of Matsuri reached her with shades as she opened the sunshade above her.

"Today, Hanabi-hime will fight with twenty-five ladies of the lesser Houses of the clan," her servant explained pushing a rebellious lock of her hair out of her eyes.

"And let me guess," Tenten cut her off in a fake happy voice tranquilly fanning herself. "I need to watch in silence and sit at the back of the room considering my rank."

The sober decoration of the compound reminded her of a gaping wooden carcass in which everyone and everything was at his rightful place. The system of caste of the clan was an elaborate hierarchy and its rules seemed to escape her. Branch members bowed to her out of respect for Neji and often offered her advice to the consumption of a child while the few members of the Main House ignored her presence altogether, not even bowing down to their leader. Women and men were often training separately and there was an order that dictated who and when each step could be taken.

Grimly, she kneeled down in the wide training room of the main mansion of the compound. From her place, she could barely see past the top of the heads of the women before her. Fanning herself in regular movements, she watched the room filled in with similar angular faces. Unlike most women she had met from other clans, femininity in the Hyuuga clan embodied an impassive silence and soft whispers that contrasted drastically with the ways of the _iki_. Here smart comments or elaborate elegant outwears weren't encouraged.

Behind them, servants moved across the doors parting them, severing the union of dancing herons in bamboo forests. Something vibrated through her, despite the moist of the air and the proximity of the Hyuuga women next to her.

When the blades met for the time, she gasped.

Rapidly, the sound of fighting rose from the center of the room, echoing within her excitement that set her body aflame. She nearly choked onto the smell of weapon and sweat trying to keep her movements even.

"Why are they fighting with katana, Matsuri?" She whispered masking her mouth with her fan.

The concubine frowned when she didn't receive an answer. Turning discreetly, she noticed the pale cheeks of her servant. Her dark eyes stared into space, unwavering.

"Matsuri?"

The metallic sound ceased and she became aware of her servant's ragged breathing.

"You," exclaimed a childish voice behind her.

She blinked rapidly as the princess of the Hyuuga pointed her. Next to her, fans froze mid-air and curious blank eyes shifting their glance towards her. Beneath, her mask, her skin burned.

"I don't think Hyuuga-hime wants to lose her time with me."

"I decide how I manage my time," Hanabi replied impatiently. "I was told me you killed a man with a kunai, so surely a fight against a thirteen year old cannot scare you."

She detailed with her eyes, the savage impatient look of the princess and her small hands still gripping her katana.

"Hyuuga-sama wouldn't approve," Tenten hesitated as her hand twitched, betraying her want.

"And Hanabi-hime insists," a pinched voice snapped next to her. "Get up, your behaviour is shameful for the heiress."

Her jaw line clenched as she snapped shut her fan handing it to Matsuri. Quietly, she followed the young woman to the center of the room.

"Hand her one of Neji-niisan's spare katana," the girl ordered already taking her stance. "Offer her protections, she may need it."

Stiffly, she bowed. Her mask slid past the paste on her face. Her eyes now had a silver glow and a predatory smile unfroze her features. She shrugged off her kimono once the obi was untied by a faceless servant putting the Hyuuga training black shirt on top of her bandaged chest.

"I won't need any but I thank Hyuuga-hime for her generosity."

The weight of the katana almost sent her in rapture and she felt her heartbeat accelerated, beating her blood in a song she had long forgotten. She knew she was slipping, she knew she would regret it afterwards but the scent of silver claimed her body and she was a fighter again.

"Hanabi-hime will begin the fight when she will see it fit," an elder woman proclaimed ceremoniously.

As she expected, the child attacked her as soon as the elder ceased to speak. Easily, she moved across the tatami her wrists barely moving as she blocked the first attack. Her palm hit the center of the princess sending her puffing back to her initial position. She watched the reflection of her stare in her blade as she lunged forward. Hanabi's eyes widened as she felt the monstrous force of her opponent.

Her wrist almost gave up then the weight was gone.

The concubine's body quivered fainting from her vision. Her breath caught in her throat, her eyes searching around her.

"Above you, Hanabi-hime!"

The force of the impact sent her to the ground. Breathless and dazzled, her body faintly trembled under the unflinching hazel stare that stood above her. The tip of her katana resting against the princess' neck, she stopped herself, she stopped the beast.

Tenten saw raw fear spread across her features.

Hanabi saw a monster imprisoned in hazel eyes; a blank beast.

-X-

Sweltering wind blew dirt around the Hyuuga compound. Neji Hyuuga stood on the veranda, sheltered from the sun as he saw the dance of weapons before him. The clashing of blade almost masked the barking of his lieutenant. The shades moved and a familiar presence stepped behind him. Clearing his throat, he slightly turned his head towards his captain.

"You told me you would be gone for a week. How was the wedding?"

Behind him, the lean man merely shrugged searching his robes for tobacco.

"Frankly, not as troublesome as I thought it would be."

Uncrossing his arms, the shogun began walking his gaze still lingering in twisting bodies and tensing muscles. He merely nodded sensing the shift in the stature of his subordinate. His hesitation was palpable in their shared silence.

"But you surely didn't come back to narrate your honeymoon to me?"

"Ino heard something that may have you concerned," Shikamaru admitted finally.

The lazy tone of his voice was muffled by the dangling pipe between his lips. It crackled alive and he drew the comforting smoke in his lungs.

"Uchiha?" He asked simply, disgust wrinkling his nose.

His men were not ready for a fight. His eyes saw the flaws in their style and Kiba's impatient loud voice only reminded him that a battlefield would mean certain dead for most of them.

"No, it's about your concubine," he replied carefully staring at him.

The warlord stopped his hand gripping the side of a wooden pillar. His blood gradually turned to ice in his veins and he closed his eyes fighting off his instinct.

"How is it that Tenten managed to shorten your honeymoon?"

"Her name is now in the Bingo book. The bounty is 10000 coins of gold. So let me return the compliment: I thought you were a smart man, Neji. Women are troublesome creatures that don't take well when they are told off."

The lazy man pushed his pipe away from his lips watching carefully comprehension crept on the older man's features.

"Are you saying that my wife listed my concubine in the Bingo Book?" He hissed, his knuckles turning white as he narrowed his eyes.

"Bounty hunters would soon be on her trail and we will all be targeted for this amount of money. What in the troublesome world were you thinking? Especially, knowing that we can't trust Tenten-san, she may as well be selling us."

Abruptly, they stood face to face, smoke snaking between their anger.

"What do you mean by that?"

His captain cursed under his breath, twisting his pipe between his fingers.

"She's too close from Danzou-sama, according to Ino. Your head is very likely to end up on a pike if you keep preparing a war against Uchiha and Danzou."

He began walking again, his hands twitching at his side. Shikamaru forced him to stop, an iron grip on his arm.

"Let her go, Neji. She's not worth it; she's endangering all of us."

"I suppose this is why Nara-hime isn't here. She doesn't approve," he replied dryly.

Stiffly, his captain nodded, tobacco smoke tightly drawing new shadows on his skin.

"Get rid of her, Neji, or she will drag you and your clan down."

She erupted from closed doors in her dancing footsteps, four elders around her, and his eyes were already following her. The humidity of the air plastered his robes on his torso and only his captain's grip on his arm kept him in place. The war cries around him blunted and for a brief moment she locked eyes with him.

Her make-up was washed away and her hair, out of her regular bun.

"I can't, Shikamaru, I just can't."

Sliding doors closed and another firm grip stopped him. The narrowed eyes of his grandfather and his grip pushed him on his knees. His mind swam, his heart hammering his rib cage. Next to him, his captain fell on his knees bowing to the patriarch of the Hyuuga clan.

Icily detailing the two warriors, his grandfather massaged the stump of his left hand.

"Follow me, Neji."

-X-

**There you go! Review? :)**


	12. Blank Beast part 2

**As you may have noticed, this part is a lot longer than any previous chapters. In fact, this is two chapters in one. (Proof-reading was way too long -_-') I hope you will enjoy every second of it. :) **

**Three things: the **_**'hour of the tiger'**_** corresponds to between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Second thing: I know that Japan doesn't have a desert but for the purpose of the story let's pretend that there is one. Third thing: **_**Senbon**_** are needles. **

**Thank you, **_**Chisa Chispa-chan**_**, to keep me in line. Heck, I wish you had a Fanfic account so you could PM me every day to get my fingers moving on the keyboard. (So if you ever do… Please do so.)**

-X-

**Blank Beast part 2  
**_**by Clementive**_

-X-

_**12 years ago**_

"You think I'm stupid, don't you? This child is a famished one, nothing else."

Light brown sternly turned away from the shuddering child. The words rose and escaped her. They lay flat before her on the cold hard floor. The room seemed to be as bear as her, standing yet ignored by the coolness in the gestures of the two men facing one another. She missed home, mama and papa.

She was in another land, hungry and cold and terribly alone.

The candlelight wavered and she briefly saw the bandages on the older man's face. Only one pale brown eye coldly looked past her at Takeo. Their breath drew white clouds in the dim room. Her knees throbbed with the extended kneeling, her skin gray-like by the hunger.

She wished they would leave.

"Danzou-sama, there are two armors left as you may know. One is crafted and in the hands of the survivors of the House. The second one is inside this child's head."

He pushed her forward as she stared back at him in confusion. The words rang unnatural to her, their mouth were too wide as they were uttered. She stood up, thinking they were finally leaving but Takeo shot her an annoyed look and she felt back on her knees apologizing quickly.

She wished he would explain it to her.

"I don't need a fictional armor, Takeo-san. Her body is too delicate, she will probably never be able to craft it. Bring the child with you, I have no use for her."

The tall man smirked bending down towards the child.

"_Tiantian, this man would like to see your dragon. Do you want to show it to him?_"

Her body slightly relaxed as the words made sense to her once more. Harmonious and high-pitched wavering; a piece of home.

Nonetheless, she hesitated glancing nervously at the hostility in the other man's face. Her mama told her to be strong, to stay and obey Takeo. Slowly, she turned around and lifted her shirt up exposing her back.

"I suppose, you didn't understand me, Danzou-sama. This child is Qiang's heiress."

The candlelight licked her skin and a slow smirk played on the lord's lips. She felt the mood shifted, the shadows crossing their faces veiled their intentions and she let the shirt fall back into place. Darkness twisted as tendrils and men appeared around the lord.

She opened her mouth to scream but they had human faces. They couldn't be demons from the stories mama told her whenever she did something bad. The girl forced herself to remain still as she brushed the kunai on her thigh with her fingers. The presence of the steel soothed her.

"What is telling me that you just didn't tattoo a random Chinese girl? I thought Dragons were loyal and yet, there you stand, Takeo-san."

"You've seen Sora a thousand times, Danzou-sama. This is not a random girl and you know it."

Sharply, he nodded and a woman among the human shadows kneeled before her. She smiled and said something she didn't understand. She threw a confused glance at Takeo but he barely turned his face towards her.

"_Follow her, Tiantian. She will give you food_."

"You still haven't answered my question: what do you want?"

The light flickered as she stood up grimacing from the pain in her joints. Takeo's face was made of darkness. She took a careful step, the woman pulling at her hand.

"I want her place, I want the House of Dragons."

Only his dark eyes shone in the obscurity of the room.

She learned that day that beasts didn't just have pearl eyes; they had kimono and soft hands. When they spoke, their mouth remained wide and their tone even. Rice powder masked their neck and they could smile sweetly.

They were blank beasts and now so was she.

_I, Sora of the House of Dragons, hereby give my daughter, Tiantian of the House of Dragons, to the care of Takeo of the House of Dragons under the supervision of the Hyuuga clan. In exchange of which, when she comes of age, the current head of the Hyuuga clan will find her an appropriate spouse as she will see fit. For which, I commit to guard the armor crafted by Qiang of the House of Dragons and to name an heir after me to do so. I also commit to never reveal where the armor is to anyone outside of the House of Dragons and understand that doing so will result in my daughter's death. _

-X-

"You think you are so intelligent, don't you?"

Swords hung on the ceiling steeping the room in a hazy wavering light. They dangled, they danced and his eyes remained on them. The heavy chains that locked the doors lay at his feet setting free the thick stale smell. Dust gleamed in the sunlight dancing in quiet circles around his grandfather's cold manners.

"There are about twenty survivors and you _just_ had to choose Qiang's daughter to rub it on our face. The only one we cannot touch! Well now, since you are bedding her you may as well meet her kind."

'Her father's name is Qiang.' Unknowingly, he revealed more about Tenten than she ever did herself. Neji stood petrified in the frame of the sliding doors as his grandfather's voice became a snappish chant of Chinese names. The portraits detailed him with piercing fierce eyes, a solemn hand holding up their left sleeve. On the skin of their forearm, tails of dragons curled in diverse shapes and colors.

They walked through three centuries of alliance, hatred and blood painted over Asian faces.

"All of them, representatives of the House of Dragons on Japanese soil for the past three centuries. They made our weapons when we decided to take this shogunate and we fought for them when they decided to establish themselves in the mountains near Hun's tribes. Is that what you wanted to hear, boy? That the Main Branch made yet another mistake by fraternizing with those barbarians?"

The young warlord took a cautious step inside the room. The sunlight blinded him, and then the shades tightly wrapped themselves once more around him. The swords and their reflections swung in the void in a soft metallic melody, dust a mere glitter above him.

Clear pearl orbs contrasted with the darker orbs of the paintings. Faintly, fear flickered in his grandfather's eyes and past the confusion he felt at his agitated state, a small smirk curled his lips up.

He felt powerful despite his marked forehead, despite Tenten's haunting last gaze.

The elder approached him, his lips pinched in controlled anger. Briskly, his stump pointed at the portrait behind him.

"And this is Sora, the last one."

As he turned his head, he suddenly saw Tenten wrapped in blazing anger across the ferocity of the portraits' eyes. A young woman with pale green eyes stared down at him, an arrogant frown creasing her forehead. The resemblance hit him and his skin started prickling under the frosty stare of his grandfather.

"Probably one of the worst swordswomen ever to be born."

"Sora is a Japanese name," the shogun stonily murmured his eyes still following the familiar lines of her mouth and eyes.

"The House of Dragons didn't care about such details. By 8, they gave up their names, boy. After, they were nameless savages with a gift for crafting and handling weapons," he spat staring down at his missing hand.

His face gradually darkened as he locked eyes with his grandson.

"Today we have the same discipline they have. No child is marked and your position as the shogun is just a pleasing façade that will soon end. You are one of us now but you lack the strength to take your responsibility and mark the branch members. They are turning their back on you. You are weak, boy, and Tiantian of the House of Dragons won't change that.

Tasteless power flew out of his veins and Neji was suddenly the branch member's prodigy. A stony wall still separated him from being at ease in his grandfather's presence, in a place strictly reserved to main branch members.

"Tell me who put you up to this masquerade." The older man ordered clenching his palm over his stump. "Whose fabulous idea was it to bring a dragon here? Yours? Takeo's?"

The voice echoed menacingly across the hall of portraits and he felt their eyes observing him as accusing as his grandfather's. The lights blinked and his mind whirled assembling the elements he saw and heard together.

'Who's Takeo?' Then, he saw it again, the flickering weakness furtively crossing his face. A flaw in the main branch. He relaxed, he could taste power on his tongue; stronger, bolder than before.

He saw fear.

'I am the shogun,' he reminded himself straightening his back, locking glance with his grandfather. White and darkness altered around him around and the words left his mouth before he could stop them.

"It was my idea."

Disgust deformed the wrinkled face before him as his breath caught up in his throat. In soft waves, the swords moved above their heads.

The shogun was blinded; sunlight and pearl burning through him.

"So you did think you were smarter than us. Let me make something clear for you, boy. I told Hiashi it was taboo to teach you some of the main branch techniques. Do you know why?"

The stump hit his forehead and Neji briefly flinched.

"Because then, the clan would stop marking children once you became shogun. Unmarked, they endanger this clan and its secrets since they aren't shown their proper place. You just proved me right by bringing her here. You are putting the clan in a difficult situation with your pending war, boy."

His grandfather turned away from him, walking back towards the unchained doors. His agitation broke his usual confident step. The eyes of the portrait followed his steps, the heavy burden of the past for him to share.

"She's your responsibility, boy. I dearly hope you know what it means."

Neji licked his lips, silently praying he wouldn't see through him and his curiosity.

"Why did you execute six of them here?"

He owed it to Tenten.

Violently, the words stopped the old man as their whipped past him. Bitterly, he remembered the days he was still shogun, with two hands. There was a time when branch members still held their rightful place but a missing hand was tantamount to death; an incomplete and dishonourable gentle fist. He stepped down for his eldest son and now, the castes within the clan were fading.

"They were tools, Neji. Nothing more but again so are you," he laughed dryly shrugging off the memories of his younger years. "And as you may want to remember, boy, tools are meant to be disposed of when they become useless. Now, get out of my sight, you disgust me."

Branch members were insects; blank little beasts that should obey in silence. They didn't need to know about the Main house's secrets.

They didn't need to know how one dragon constantly held an armor above their neck, its sides sharper and deadlier than any weapon they had ever crafted.

-X-

"You think you are so intelligent, don't you? Trying to fool us with rice powder and red lips."

The cry rose within her chest, overwhelmed her mind with Neji's frozen stature; she didn't want to die.

Tenten licked her dry lips, a mere puppet surrounded by three members of the main branch of the clan. The elder's woman yellowish nails scraped her forearm as she pushed aside her left sleeve. Her pearl orbs narrowed as she felt the slim pale lines marking her arm. She hoped it would be a quick death; her exposed neck and a balanced katana. The concubine's breath caught in her throat when the nails grasped at her neck, the wrinkled hand secure on her chin.

"You are much too young to have those scars on your arm and much too old not to be marked with a dragon."

Two elders behind her shifted in their kneeling position, stoically staring at Tenten's arm.

"If she's not marked then, she's just a commoner, Asuka-sama. We should let her go," an icy whisper offered.

Roughly, she turned the young woman's face towards them. The concubine tried to suppress the waves of nausea assaulting her throat. The heat made her light-headed and vulnerable to the inspections of the eldest woman in the room.

"Have you gone blind, nee-chan? Look at her face and dare tell me again that she's not Sora's daughter."

They breathed heavily, their coldness revealing their fear and confusion. Their angry voice rose and their proximity made her dizzy. They spoke of things, she didn't comprehend, her mind swinging with the crushing heat. She wanted their silence, their disinterested glance of the past few days. 'Neji,' she quelled a grimace when his name made his way across her trail of thought.

"When you will be through with your arguing about my lineage, can we please rapidly take care of my death?" she asked loudly, above their screams and her own inward pleas.

She placidly stared at the katana they had set aside. She hoped they would call a man with a steady wrist. She hoped for one blow.

Their silence frightened her, the sound of the crickets resonating through her.

"Your death?"

They exchanged a surprised glance and the elder before let go of her neck as if she had burned her.

"Don't insult us, child. Hyuuga respect the terms of the truce despite Hiashi-sama being dead."

"What truce?" The words tore her throat and she fought back hope rising, sweeping away her resolute mind.

"Are you merely stupid, child, or did Takeo forget to tell you why we keep you alive? Surely, you didn't think we allowed you to stay in Konoha because we wanted you to?"

'No, I thought you didn't know I was here.' A ferocious shadow crossed her face, her hand resting against her neck where the elder's nails had pierced her skin. Silvers of memories came almost timidly to her mind: a tall man eating with her parents discussing about the Hyuuga clan, the same tall man handing her over at Tsunade.

His name was Takeo, now she remembered.

"I would like to read those terms, Asuka-sama."

Her voice was barely a whisper of icy anger and the woman before her nodded slowly.

-X-

Her skin repulsed her, imprisoned her in its milling made of silk and machinations.

She was lost.

Her mind darkening, something broke within her.

Tenten thought she was already dead, her skin hanging out her bones; a cadaver, a blank beast. She was not meant to be recognized. She was the daughter of a man who created an armor which was meant to destroy a whole clan. She was the daughter of a man who lost his head for that mistake.

She was a dragon.

The old women circled her like nervous bees flapping their wings around her neck. Roughly, Tenten opened the doors of Neji's wall cabinet where he kept his weapons. Her sharp eyes detailed each one of them, her fingers reaching for the ones she had tampered to fit her hand.

"This was an unfortunate mistake, Tenten-san."

Her mind emptied and the Chinese words of the truce pounded through her. Despite the weight of the weapons, she still felt empty, a living corpse. Anger clung to her robes as she shrugged them off ignoring the nervous look in the pearl eyes still watching her. In quiet steps, they followed her in her room not daring to utter a word. The delicate thin paper still clasped in her hand, the concubine pulled on dark fighting robes.

Like angels of death, they stilled in the door frame, ignoring the insisting glances of the branch members of the clan as they passed by the room. They appeared pale; tamed blank beasts by their nervousness.

An ash-gray face turned towards them as their chorus rose in smoothing voices.

"We cannot let you go, I'm afraid."

"If you pursue this, you may die," added her younger sister stiffly folding her hands before her.

"Oh how unfortunate that would be for you!" She snapped icily, her rising voice freezing them in place. "Don't worry I won't try contacting her to tell her how _you_ didn't respect the truce. It would be such a shame with the pending war if she were to give the armor to the Uchiha clan."

"That part concerned Takeo, not us," Akusa countered in an undertone.

"Two days," she harshly said kicking her chest on the side. "I need two days."

A secret drawer spilled out of its center and she reached for the metallic strings and the black gloves not glancing up at them. The elders exchanged glances before reluctantly nodding. She twisted her hair in messy bun pinning it at the base of her neck.

"Very well then, you will come back here in two days," the eldest woman whispered between pinched lips. "If you don't, we will send someone after you."

Stiffly, the young woman nodded rearranging her robes so that the weapons would press against her skin, warm and deadly.

"You do realize that contacting your mother in any way is not allowed by the truce?"

"I won't."

Absentminded, Tenten twisted a kunai in her hand tossing it in the air. She wouldn't know what to tell her if she were to see her again. Rage still bubbled inside of her, she couldn't let go of the blame even if it were misplaced. She couldn't forget a part of her anger in an instant so she clung to it all; the pain of her mother's disappearance and the truce. It was a furious cry, a dying soul. Her mother signed with her blood for an educated daughter instead of which she would get a concubine, a courtesan.

She slid the doors opened not bothering to look back as their voice stopped her.

"What should we tell Neji-sama about your departure?"

She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. 'Neji,' again the name snaked through her head and Tenten froze. He weighed more on her mind than she should let him. She turned away from him and his dangerous eyes.

She lost herself to the darkness inhabiting her.

"Nothing. There's nothing to tell him."

_I, Hiashi Hyuuga, hereby allow Tiantian of the House of Dragons to live within the limits of the city of Konoha with Takeo of the House of Dragons as her legal guardian. I understand that any harm done to Tiantian of the House of Dragons will render this truce null and void and result in the crafting of more armor by the survivors of the House of Dragons. They will then be free to sell or give them to any clan to be used against the Hyuuga clan._

-X-

Shino Aburame found the princess kneeling on silk cushions a sunshade above her head shielding her from the sand and the harsh sun. Her large lavender robes roughly outlined the signs of third pregnancy. The impassive warlord took another step as he compared her calm confidence with her meek movements of his memories and something within him flinched. A small smile on her face, she watched her two boys jumped around butterflies reaching up to catch one of them. They both had the pearl unflinching eyes of her mother veiled by thick long eyelashes and dark brown hair. The sun drew red shades in their abundant locks as they moved around the insects. Meekly, the servant that had guided him excused herself and left him alone.

"Hinata-sama," he curtsied awkwardly in his deep voice.

Wide eyed, she turned around a graceful smile lightening her delicate features. Suspicious, the boys stopped playing watching their mother's reaction at the stranger's unfamiliar appearance. His pale skin was covered by grey excessive clothing like the merchants of the North that sometimes lost their way in the dunes. When their mother stood up to greet the strange man, they went back to their game chasing the butterflies farther away.

"Shino-kun! I was worried, your letter stated that you would arrive yesterday. Would you like some tea?"

Her voice was still rich, barely rising above the tone of a whisper but she didn't blush or flutter under his gaze as she used to be. Shino zùmoved forward, reassured by the familiarity he still felt in her eyes and gestures.

"I would enjoy some tea, Hinata-chan."

The princess softly smiled turning her head towards one of the servants. Quietly, she sat back in the shade patting a place next to her for him.

"I apologize for the delay, there was a sandstorm that lasted until the hour of the tiger. I thought it would be inappropriate to announce myself at such time."

She nodded letting the wind played with her indigo hair as he carefully sat down next to her. They waited in silence for the tea to be served.

"What the letter didn't state, however, is why you are here, Shino-kun."

He gave her one of his rare smiles bowing slightly his head to her.

"You are now well versed in political matters it seems, Hinata-chan. You are also more confident. I was afraid that your marriage to Gaara-sama would be inadequate."

The Aburame heir realized he wanted to take things slow. He wanted to savour the soft warm wind next to her, the ton of her voice vibrating through her chest.

Her laughter welcomed the bond of their friendship. As they grew up, she played mostly with the heirs of the Aburame and Inuzuka clans. Their compounds were established next to the main branch mansion of her clan. When she married, Shino's cold unflinching stare followed her to the altar where she took her husband's hand. Kiba being less subtle glared at her husband throughout the ceremony, boldly threatening him before they left Konoha for Suna.

Years have passed but the question remained in his orbs, in his silent caring demeanour.

"Gaara-kun is a good man, Shino-kun. He's changed from the brute that attacked Konoha. Are you now married, Shino-kun?"

Inwardly, he grimaced throwing a side-glance at her enlarged stomach. Intensively, his eyes found hers and he hoped his voice would not waver.

"I would never marry without telling you first, Hinata-chan," he cleared his throat turning his glance to her two sons. He needed to remember that her duty lied in her matrimonial vows and that his lied in giving an heir to his clan.

There was no turning back.

"But Shikamaru got married with a Yamanaka if you must know and she's not average looking."

The Hyuuga princess faintly raised her brows remembering the sloppy heir of the Nara clan sleeping his way through fighting lessons.

"Oh? What happened to 'I will marry a woman who's not beautiful and not ugly'?" She playfully looked over her tea cup at him letting the hot liquid filled her mouth.

"It seems her beauty changed his mind," he slightly shrugged enjoying the fresh breeze of the early afternoon.

He felt the wind shifted, their conversation paused head towards the reason he was here. The young lord closed his eyes as she waited patiently. There has always been a way in which Hinata could see through him as no one else could. Often his quiet demeanour would leave him unnoticed. There was a time, when over and over, she found him without trying.

There was a time when they didn't need an excuse to talk to one another.

"Sasuke Uchiha came back and declared war to the Hyuuga clan," he stated flatly.

She shyly nodded turning her attention back to the innocent excited voices of her sons. She could see herself within them, in the pearl of their eyes. Yet, they moved and breathed on their own as quiet distinct parts of her. They learned things that her clan would only look down upon. When the news of the breaking war arrived, her glance fell on them as they kept playing with one another, oblivious to the game of power.

'Pawns,' she realized. 'They are already pawns.'

Her hand fell on her abdomen and she hesitated as always. A third son will have nothing and no power while a daughter would be used by her husband's clan to tighten ties with allies.

Instead, she almost wished for a barren womanhood.

"Neji-san doesn't know I'm here but Shikamaru thought it would be appropriate to tell you. Your cousin still doesn't have an heir and…" He paused when she blanched understanding what he meant.

"And my husband may be tempted to overthrow Neji while he's weak so that my second son can have a fief," she finished taking her hand off her belly as if it had burned her. "Do you really think I-I would let it happen, Shino-kun, if it were the case?"

She gnawed her below lip, hearing herself stutter. Shino watched her quietly

"Hinata-chan, you are not a hostage here. You are now a Subaku, your ties to the Hyuuga clan are severed. You are no longer the heiress of the clan, but your sons are. My being here is a precaution not an accusation."

"I know, Shino-kun. I told my husband to remain neutral. His current fighting force won't allow him to attack Neji-niisan anyhow. He will step in, though, if Neji loses to the war."

He watched her frown and he set his cup of tea back on the trail.

"You mean if Neji dies, he will step in to ensure that his second son becomes shogun of the Fire? So, Shikamaru was right to send me here after all. Gaara-sama is not our ally."

Her smile fluttered as she turned her wide pearl eyes toward him.

"Men of the south don't discuss with their wives. They take decisions and when they see fit they share them," there was a cold edge in her voice and he slowly nodded averting his eyes from her. "I can say it to you because you are here as a friend: I don't approve. I would rather not have my youngest son targeted. I would rather hear that Neji-niisan has two sons of his own. You know that, don't you, Shino-kun?"

"Of course, Hinata-chan. I apologize, I just needed to ask."

He hesitated scrutinizing her reaction as he stoically bent over her. The warlord reached for her hand as if they were still young and hiding in the forest from Kiba's nose. Silently laughing as Akamaru dug out old bones rather than searched for them. Animated by the wind, sand grains twisted around them and Hinata took back her hand glancing nervously over her servants who didn't seem to have noticed.

They weren't children anymore. A shogi board dressed in silk opposed them now.

"Shino-kun, please stay the night. I think you have a lot to tell me. Neji-niisan never gives me details when he writes me. You know him, he's too serious."

The young man nodded his hand still aching from their interrupted touch. He started slow, his voice detailing everything that he could think of, her reactions as his only guide.

-X-

"There is approximately a thousand of Takeo in this city," Shikamaru stated a monotonous voice. "Could you be more specific? Only a first name won't help me."

He rolled back the scroll setting it on the desk. Inquiring, he raised a brow as Neji didn't react. His hands still held the wooden doors of his wall cabinet. He shook his dark locks, his features hardening as he counted the empty places.

His mind screamed, he flinched.

"Did you hear what I just said?" he asked impatiently.

'No', he wanted to scream. He searched for the silence of her anger, her presence made of sly remarks and a sarcastic pout. He wanted to scream her name.

The shogun passed by him in measured steps not looking once at his confused captain.

"Neji!"

The shogun forcefully slid the doors open of his room. Her wooden chest lay next to their futon, a secret drawer spilling out from its center. Her kimonos were thrown across the room, enhancing the stillness he felt inside of himself.

"She's even messier than Ino," the Nara man murmured while passing a hand through his hair.

"She's gone."

Breaths fell out of his chest and he felt his blood pounced around his ear. He still searched for her disguised laughter, her insults.

"What?"

It exploded within him and fear filled his lung as they longed for her air, her gracious movements, her sighs. Anything.

"She's gone." He repeated in a shout turning to face him. "Matsuri!"

The doors slid open and a servant he had never seen before bowed before him. She kept her dark hair in a low ponytail and her black eyes remained on the floor.

"Hyuuga-hime sent Matsuri back to her hometown, Hyuuga-sama. She thought Tenten-sama would be more pleased with me. My name is Kin Tsuchi, Hyuuga-sama."

She bowed again and her meek smile not quite masking the darkness dancing in her orbs. With a rough gesture of his hand he dismissed her but his uneasiness subsided. When main branch members arranged his household for the first time, walls had ears and eyes. In this case, revenge could only guide Hanabi's actions. A bad feeling twisted his gut.

"Tell Kiba to track her with Akamaru."

"No," came the flat answer.

"Excuse me?"

"Neji, you are being troublesome and stubborn," Shikamaru snapped coldly. "First, you asked me to track a Takeo among millions of them in Konoha who may have a connection with Tenten-san and now this. Do you realize how ridiculous you have become because of that troublesome woman? It's time to let her go."

They faced one another, breathing heavily as the silence between them thickened.

"You are right."

Neji closed his eyes, his hand tightening around his katana until his knuckles turned white. He had always followed the order and honour taught by the ways of the Hyuuga clan and his concubine had disrupted his old ways. His hand reached for his forehead and he sat down on her wooden chest.

"I guess I should get used to Hanabi rearranging my household as she would lead the clan once she comes of age," he murmured in a tired voice. "Go back to your wife, Nara. We will go over your strategy tomorrow. There's nothing left to do here."

-X-

It became as a whisper, a chanting mantra. His mind whirled prisoner of his dreams.

The stars outlined her body, and then she disappeared.

Light rain spattered the roof, cascading between the red tiles. Soundlessly, thunder broke at a distance, whitening the welkin for a moment. Light and darkness intertwined as he woke up in a startle. Instinctively, he reached for the katana next to his bed. An angry whisper faded with his nightmare as his eyes adjusted to the surrounding darkness. Breathing hard, his eyes scoured the impenetrable shadows. Takeo closed his eyes, his handle on his weapon relaxing as he laughed nervously.

No one could find him. He was safe surrounded by his men.

He was the new Weapon Master. The rising of a new leader was always a long process within the House of Dragons. Within one year, candidates were marked with dragons on their backs. Then, they fought until only one winner remained. Weaklings fell first, stumps dangling from their body as their face met the earth beneath them. With only a few survivors, the fighting that tested his strength lasted a few days.

He beat them, they kneeled

His reverie broke. Swiftly, his eyes rose to the ceiling as he heard the distant sound of steps on slippery tiles. Frowning, he jumped to his feet following the sound with his eyes. It deepened when silence answered his hammering heartbeat, his dry mouth and his drowsy state.

The half-blood hunted the shadows, his katana still raised mid-air. Fear led to anger; he thought he had tamed them over the years.

He stilled.

The sliding doors near his working room were ajar letting the thunder drew thinner shadows on the walls.

"Who's there? Show yourself! I can sense your weapons!"

A vase broke behind him and in one rapid movement of the arm, his sword bit. On the floor, the glass still wobbled. His laboured breath echoed in the room as he pulled out his blade from the wooden beam.

"It seems to me like you can't sense them at all," a familiar voice said in Chinese.

Sitting on his desk, a shadow smirked. He lowered his weapon reaching for the lamp.

"Well, Sora, it has been quite a while. What are you doing here in the middle of the night? You know very well that I can't allow you to see your daughter."

She watched him across the lightened candles as his eyes widened. His mouth opened but no sound escaped it. His knuckles have turned white around his sword. The thin flame on the desk enhanced the lines of her cheekbone and their reflections deepened her glance of steel.

"Tiantian?" his voice wavered, he hesitated.

She didn't.

The kunai dug in the flesh of his shoulder. Past the surprise, he pressed his other hand against it.

"'_Yearly, I will send the equivalent weight of ten bags of rice in silver, steel and iron. 2 will go to the Hyuuga clan for my daughter's protection and be disposed as they see fit. 3 will go to Takeo of the House of Dragons for the care and education of my daughter and any additional expense will be covered if need be. 5 will directly go to my daughter_.'" She recited.

Roughly, she pulled back her hand and the kunai flew back towards her. She caught it, searching herself across the organized desk and the man before her that was part of her childhood and her first laughter.

Pain shot through his shoulder and he pushed himself up in a fighting stance.

"I hardly consider a brothel an education. I hardly consider you giving me to Danzou-sama and Tsunade-sama a sliver of what care actually means."

"What will you do about it, Tiantian? You have no training," he smirked; a blank beast that bit at her dreams. "You threw a kunai at my shoulder. Even your mother would have done better and she was a senbon user."

Thunder erupted and he faintly saw the strings swaying around him.

"The cemetery of dragons? You can't use that, Tiantian. It is meant to be used against murderers."

"You murdered a part of me," she answered simply.

His smirk died on his lips when she raised three fingers in front of her. They moved, his blood dripping on their length as he moved to step out of the vibrating metallic threads. He threw his katana towards her unmoving form. Calmly, she grabbed its handle throwing back at him. He stepped out of the way and the thread dug at his skin circling his wounded arm until he couldn't feel the blood flow in it.

Slowly, she stepped up, moving her arms as the strings took hold of his second arm. A balanced kick in his tibias forced him on his knees. He cried out as the metallic web around him became red.

"You ate at my parents' table. You slept under their roof when Papa trained with you. Is it painful, Takeo?"

Tenten sat on her heels looking in his quivering eyes. Age now sculpted hard creases around his eyes and mouth but she recognized a part of her that died twelve years ago with her beheaded father and fleeing mother.

"For the past twelve years, I have woken up hating every inch of my face. Every inch that looked so much like her. For the past twelve years, I woke up and thought that my mother hated me to the point of abandoning in a brothel. Is it painful, Takeo? I had three men on top of me and I thought my mother hated me."

She reached for his katana letting the flame licked it. When she stood up, she watched unflinching his dark hair veiling his paling face and his arms pulled behind his head. For a brief moment, she thought of Neji's own dark locks and pearl eyes.

He sensed her hesitation. A smirk played on his paling lips.

"You are no killer. You don't have the guts to lead us."

"You did it for a title? You turned on us, for a tattoo and a title?"

"Now, child, release me. We both know you can't kill me. You are no killer."

She laughed dryly shaking her head. Suddenly, she knew who she was. She knew she was meant to smell of charred steel, silver and iron. There was no mask, only her against the world. It had never been about the killer, the ache for weapons and the metallic melody of her childhood. She found herself in quivering darkness a blade cleaving it, separating her old hiding self from her new one.

The blow scattered dark spots on the floor as a warm liquid reached her foot. His head fell, gouged in blood. His smirk still stretched his lips as his eyes emptied from their vivacity. She breathed hard, coldness spreading across her members.

"_I'm Tenten and I gave up my name on a boat_," she murmured in Japanese watching the blood flow out of his body. "_I'm a dragon_."

Rice powder and fake smiles flew along with the blood, oozing between the slats.

-X-

"You know, that poor tree doesn't deserve to die."

He paused, breathing heavily as he lowered slightly his fighting stance. Neji gulped readjusting his stance when the trees around him didn't move, their shadows still elongated and shielding him from the sun. Her voice kept torturing him, sweat gliding down his naked chest.

"I meant it!" The shoe hit his shoulder. "Is it in your Hyuuga blood to hit everything before you? By the way you look awful, Hyuuga. You look like you haven't slept in days."

The warlod glanced down at the shoe blinking rapidly as her voice. His chest heaved in rapid uncoordinated movements. He squinted at the sunlight, her smirk burning him as one naked foot dangled in the void as she leaned back against the trunk of the tree.

"You are way too serious, Neji."

"Why didn't you tell me anything?" He burst out. "You disappeared for two days and then you just show up on my training ground. What the hell do you want in the end, Tenten?"

She glanced down her branch, briefly meeting his darkening orbs.

"You should have been the one telling me your parents' names! You should have been the one telling me that our clans were allies! Not my grandfather. He told me more about you than you ever did. Yet, you show up here."

He hit the tree again, frustration snapping beneath his muscles.

"How am I supposed to protect you I you don't tell me anything?"

He breathed heavily roughly turning away from the tree where she sat. Slowly, his concubine blinked watching him unfolded in precise cold gestures. His chest rising as his shouts pierced the silence of the forest. She waited, her knees bent near her chest.

"What the hell do you from me," he repeated in a controlled voice grabbing his flask of water near his disregarded shirt.

"I apologize," she cut him off her legs once more swinging in thin air.

She jumped.

His arms moved on their own; he caught her.

Their breath mingled as the liquid in the flask he held moments ago snaked between his feet. Her nails dug slightly in his shoulders as her body slid against his.

"I apologize," she repeated her eyes on his lips.

Slowly, he set her down on the ground, his hand still circling her waist.

She ran her fingers in her hair letting him guide her in the shades, his anger dried by her touch.

"I thought I would feel better once I killed him," the edge of her voice broke.

"What?"

His back hit the warm bark of the tree behind him and he still held her. His eyes searching her face, hungry for her proximity, her bareness as she spoke without a mask. Frowning, she pressed a hand against an old scar her nose wrinkled.

"Was that made by wood? A wooden arrow? How careless are you, Hyuuga, really wood? Steel, you can't avoid, but wood? You Hyuuga are useless with weapons."

"Who did you kill?" he repeated grabbing her hand on his chest.

The wind played in her hair, brushing it aside her face. His features softened, her pain stopping him. Quietly, he let go of her hand his pulse still rising in his throat, his tiredness still clinging to him.

"Takeo."

She stared up in his orbs her hand reaching up gently to meet his collar bone. He leaned forward, drawing her closer as she began to speak softly. She talked of dragons, a giant that she called papa, a cold young mother who marked her on a boat. Her voice didn't waver; it didn't stumble over blood stains and her world of silk in a foreign language she took three years to master. Not once did his eyes left hers as she told him of Takeo and the cemetery of dragons.

"I just didn't know," the young woman shook her head spilling her brown curls across his chest and her shoulders. "I guess I just didn't know what to tell you or her if I'm ever to see her again. I just don't know any more who the biggest monster is; the concubine or the killer."

The shogun leaned closer, his hand already reaching for her cheek. Roughly, she pushed him away, turning her back to him. His eyes widened when she tore the bandage of her chest in a swift movement of the wrist with a kunai.

"This is what I was supposed to be, Neji."

The dragon's yellow eyes seemed to come to life as her back shook under the cooled breeze. Its wings reached past her shoulder blades, circling her ribs in its dim golden color. She held her arms tight around her nakedness, waiting. She didn't know what she waited for; she just stood still, exposed, bare before him.

Suddenly, Tenten jolted, the warmth of his skin pressed against her back. His naked forehead rested in the crook of her neck, as his hands stayed secure on her waist. She trembled beneath his touch as he guided her to face him. They remained still under the darkening sky, his eyes closed as she lightly brushed the green X on his forehead.

"This is what I was supposed to be, Tenten. Yet, I'm shogun."

She shivered as his lips grazed once more her skin, caressing her throat with his breath. She found herself and he, between his warm loose embrace carefully avoiding her arms still pressed against her naked chest and her shattered past.

"Will you stay?" he asked against her skin, his thumbs drawing slow circles on her hips.

"I have nowhere else to go and you still need an ally, right?" She laughed nervously prying her mind of her aching for his touch. Instead, she watched wading birds diving into the clouds licking her dry lips.

His hands and support disappeared. The concubine tumbled slightly her eyes widening as he put his white shirt over her shoulders. He smelled of pins and faint steel. Carefully, he put his forehead protector back on place.

She cleared her throat ignoring her burning cheeks as his fingers found the small of her back.

"Let's go."

She battled his fingers away, her slim finger pointing at his chest, nudging him roughly. She needed her balance back.

"Just so you know, Hyuuga, I will keep tampering with your weapons' weight and my side of the futon is still the left one. Nothing has changed."

Watching her stunned, Neji ran a hand through his unshaven chin raising his brows at her as she swayed past him in her aerial gait.

"What about the servant talk?" he called after her.

Her laughter rang light in the forest as her hair danced around her. Her face lighted up, softening her features. He didn't think of heirs anymore, or of his clan. He could only see those strange flames dancing in her orbs, her balanced weight as she stepped between branches.

"We will see, Neji. We will see."

They both knew everything had changed; he could only see her.

"Hurry, Neji. Let's go home."

-X-

**Yes, I couldn't resist; I just had to throw a confident Hinata in there. :P There isn't enough female characters in this show, I swear. Poor Shino and Kiba, they can only watch without touching… **

**I hope you enjoyed the NejiTen moment. I hope, everything was clear or somehow clear. **

**Wow, I can't believe I'm half way through the fic. I dearly hope to deliver the final chapter before school begins. Also, this chapter is longer because I will be moving next week on my campus. I HOPE to be able to somehow update but my hands are tied and I'm currently writing on a moving box, so yeah…**

**Please, review? :) Feedback is always appreciated.**


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